Systems and methods for message collection

ABSTRACT

The invention provides systems and methods for processing communication content from a user device. The method performed by a computer and comprising inputting an electronic communication that includes communication content and a routing character string. The communication content constituted by data generated as a result of, and representative of, characters keyed into the user device by the user. Maintaining a bin collection including bins. Performing processing on the communication content including identifying the user and a bin collection of the user based on the routing character string; and processing the communication content including (1) mapping first data to a command; and (2) mapping second data to a bin label. The command dictates particular action to be performed, and the bin label identifies an identified bin upon which to perform the action; and performing the action on the identified bin.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation-in-Part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/189,476 filed Jul. 22, 2011, the content of which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application61/451,630 filed Mar. 11, 2011, the content of which is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application61/558,982 filed Nov. 11, 2011, the content of which is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Text messaging is widely used by people to communicate in a quick andeffective way. However, text messaging, as well as various othercommunications provided by current known technology, have shortfalls inthe benefits such technology provides to users.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention provides systems and methods for processing communicationcontent from a user device.

The method performed by a computer and comprising inputting anelectronic communication that includes communication content and arouting character string. The communication content constituted by datagenerated as a result of, and representative of, characters keyed intothe user device by the user. Maintaining a bin collection includingbins. Performing processing on the communication content includingidentifying the user and a bin collection of the user based on therouting character string; and processing the communication contentincluding (1) mapping first data to a command; and (2) mapping seconddata to a bin label. The command dictates particular action to beperformed, and the bin label identifies an identified bin upon which toperform the action; and performing the action on the identified bin.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention can be more fully understood by reading thefollowing detailed description together with the accompanying drawings,in which like reference indicators are used to designate like elements,and in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an At-It system in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is an illustrative user interface showing a sequence of textmessages, i.e. messages, in accordance with one embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a text message with trig and content inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a table showing various types of messages with respectivetrigs in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a table showing various further types of messages inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram parsing out a send message (with send trig) inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram parsing out a clearbin message (with clearbin trig)in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 8 is a table showing select processing aspects of the At-It system10 in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing in further detail the At-It server 200in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram that shows further details of user accounts and abin collection in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 11 is a high level flow chart showing further aspects of the At-Itprocessing in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 12 is a flow chart showing the server processes the message withtrig (step 500 of FIG. 11) in further detail in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 13 is a flow chart showing the server (i.e. the bin processingportion 210) processes “add message” (step 520 of FIG. 12) in accordancewith one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 14 is a flow chart showing the server (the bin processing portion210) processes “send message” (step 530 of FIG. 12) in accordance withone embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 15 is a flow chart showing the server (the bin processing portion210) processes “clear bin message” (step 540 of FIG. 12) in accordancewith one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 16 is a flow chart showing the server (the bin generation portion230) processes “add message” (step 550 of FIG. 12) in accordance withone embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 17 is a flow chart showing the server (the bin processing portion210) processes “delete bin message” (step 560 of FIG. 12) in accordancewith one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 18 is a flow chart showing the server (the bin processing portion210) processes “add message” (step 570 of FIG. 12) in accordance withone embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 19 is a user interface showing aspects of control messages inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 20 is an illustrative graphical user interface (GUI) showing auser's bin collection and related functionality in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 21 is an illustrative GUI showing the content of a user's “moviebin” and related functionality in accordance with one embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 22 is an illustrative GUI showing functionality related to changingbins in the user's bin collection in accordance with one embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 23 is an illustrative GUI showing functionality related to changingbin settings in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 24 is an illustrative GUI showing functionality related to changingthe user's personal information in accordance with one embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 25 is an illustrative GUI showing functionality related to changingthe fuzzy logic, which is utilized by the At-It server 200, inprocessing a user's message in accordance with one embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 26 is a display showing the flow of “add messages” to the At-Itserver in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 27 is a table setting forth sayings related to the invention inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 28 is a diagram showing the report message of FIG. 2 with trigsvis-à-vis a report message without trigs, in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 29 is a user interface showing aspects of a trig map 2910 inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 30 is a diagram showing the output of content from a user's bin toa social network in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 31 is a diagram showing aspects of creation of a new bin and filestructure in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 32 is a flow chart showing fuzzy logic related processing inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 33 is a flowchart illustrating server processing of an incomingtelephone call in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 34 is a diagram showing further aspects of trig presentation in areport message from the server 200, in accordance with one embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 35 is a GUI illustrating an allowance adder, in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 36 is a table showing select features of the At-It processing asdescribed herein in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 37 is a flowchart showing further aspects of “max content bin”processing in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 38 is a diagram showing a further example of processing of aspecialized bin (a year anniversary bin) in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 39 is a flowchart showing further aspects of the processing of thespecialized “year anniversary bin” in accordance with one embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 40 is a flowchart showing processing performed by a “diddate” bin,a specialized bin, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 41 is a diagram showing content aware processing of the server inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 42 is a flowchart showing further aspects of content aware (naturallanguage) processing in accordance with embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 43 shows edit list processing in accordance with one embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 44 is a diagram showing a user interface in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 45 is a diagram showing a further example of transfer of contentbetween bins, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 46 is a flowchart showing further details of percolation processingin accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 47 is a flowchart showing details of “perc-bin distributionprocessing” in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 48 shows a “customized trig (CT) text map” GUI in accordance withone embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 49 shows a “customized trig (CT) command map” GUI in accordancewith one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 50 is a flowchart showing further aspects of conversion processingin accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 51 is a flowchart showing further details of the “server processesCT items”, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention

FIG. 52 is a user interface for a group-send bin in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 53 is a flowchart showing group-send processing in accordance withone embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 54 is a block diagram showing “capture assist” processing inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention

FIG. 55 is a flowchart showing GUI related processing in accordance withone embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 56 is a diagram showing “control texting” processing in accordancewith one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 57 shows further specialized bin processing in accordance withembodiments.

FIG. 58 shows further processing portions in accordance with embodimentsof the invention.

FIG. 59 is a diagram showing further aspects of contact-stow processingin accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 60 is a block diagram showing further aspects of various At-Itapps, in accordance with embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 61 is a GUI showing aspects of quick-bin app processing, inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 62 is a diagram showing a bin record of the bin collection datastructure 1030, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, aspects of the “At-It” systems and methods in accordancewith various embodiments of the invention will be described.

As used herein, any term in the singular may be interpreted to be in theplural unless otherwise specified, and alternatively, any term in theplural may be interpreted to be in the singular unless otherwisespecified.

As set forth herein, the systems and methods of the invention providewhat is herein characterized as an “At-It” system. The system mightalternatively be characterized as a “Texstow” system—in that the systemstows text and performs various other related processing, as describedherein.

The At-It system includes, in particular, an At-It server. The At-Itserver may be in the form of a specialized server, i.e. a tangiblyembodied specialized computer processing system. In accordance with oneembodiment of the invention, the At-It system maintains a respective bincollection for each user. The bin collection for each user includes aplurality of bins to which the user can add content by sending messagesto the At-It server, such as by sending text messages to the At-Itserver. By using particular strings of characters, i.e. “trigs” ascharacterized herein, the user controls the placement of content of thesent text message into a particular bin. The user may then retrieveaggregated, i.e. collected, content from a particular bin at a desiredtime. The user may vary the bins in the bin collection. Other channelsof communication, such as phone and e-mail, may also be leveraged by thefeatures of the invention. Various other features are provided. TheAt-It system might be characterized as a tool to assist the user indocumenting and then recalling items of information, in conjunction withperforming other processing.

The invention is focused on quick and informal communications—which theuser can craft and send in seconds, in order to capture thoughts, beforesuch thoughts slip away and are forgotten.

Accordingly, the invention relates, in particular, to leveraging “textmessaging” technology to capture pieces of information in a fun,efficient, rewarding and easy way. The invention allows the aggregationof messages of similar content into a bin created for that type ofcontent. For example, the invention might be used in a situation where achild says a cute phrase that a user wishes to capture (e.g. a five-yearold saying “why is everything so blue”); the name of a song that theuser wants to remember (to search and download from ITUNES at a laterand more convenient time); or a title from a movie preview that looksgood (and the user wants to order via NETFLIX or PAY PER VIEW when theuser gets a chance on the weekend). In each situation, the user wouldadd content to a particular bin, so as to remember the information atsome later time. A clever saying of a five year old, at a busy child'sbirthday party, may well be forgotten in minutes, unless somehowcaptured. The invention addresses such situation, and many others.

Illustratively, another situation might be that a user has rented themovie IRON MAN 2 and one of the previews on the DVD is for the movie“INCEPTION.” Thinking INCEPTION looks like a good movie to see, the userpulls out her smartphone, and keys in the text “add@movie—saw previewfor inception tonight, looks good” in a text message. The user addressesthe text message to the text number for the “At-It server”. That is, theAt-It server has a unique number, or other sequence of characters, towhich text messages may be sent.

The At-It server maintains an “At-It account” for the particular user,as well as for other users. The At-It account of the user includes theuser's phone number, i.e. the user's text number” and a bin collectionof the user. The user's account also includes various other particularsof the user needed to perform At-It related processing.

At some later time, e.g. on movie night a couple weeks later, the userwants the At-It system to remind her of all the movies she has “At-ed”(pronounced “ated”). The user sends a predetermined text message to theAt-It server—such as “send@movie”. The At-It server (in response)aggregates all the add@movie text messages (that the server haspreviously received from the user and put into the “movie bin”), and“sends” the aggregated text messages back to the user as a text message.The user is thus provided aggregated content that the user can utilizein a beneficial manner. In this example, the user can use the aggregatedcontent, accumulated over time, to remember movies of interest to her.

The character strings “add@movie” and “send@movie” are herein referredto as “trigs”. The composition of a trig depends on the particularcommand, as well as the particular bin the command acts upon. As notedabove, an “add” message for the user's movie bin might be in the form of“add@movie”—for movies to remember. Other “add” messages might include“add@cute” for a bin for cute sayings of kids; “add@songs” for a bin forsongs; and so forth. Each “add message” (sent from the user to the At-Itserver) includes the trig as well as the desired content the user wantsto remember. Other types of text messages to the At-It server may onlyinclude a trig. For example a “send message” from the user to the serveronly includes a trig.

Based on the content of a trig in each “add” message, the At-It serveradds the content in the text message to a particular bin in the user'sbin collection. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, theparticular placement of the trig (by the user) in an add message doesnot matter. Thus, regardless of whether the user puts the trig, beforethe content, after the content, or in the middle, the server will stillidentify the trig based on the @ in the trig. The bins may be logicallynamed to reflect the content intended for each bin. The user may beprovided the ability to rename bins (or add bins)—to make the bin namesmore logical for them, and easier to remember. The At-It server thusaggregates, over time, all the text messages that the user hasdesignated to a particular bin. The user may then retrieve thataggregated content by sending a “send message” to the At-It server. Asnoted above, “send@movie” is an example of a send message.

Accordingly, the trigs are of a predetermined format. The predeterminedformat allows the user to craft a text message with trig so as togenerate the desired processing. The predetermined format allows theAt-It system to be programmed to perform the desired processing inresponse to receiving a particular text message with trig from the user.As noted above, the particular content of a trig will vary based on thecommand desired by the user and the particular bin that the command isto be applied to, i.e. in performing the desired processing.

In more specific explanation, a trig of the invention includes acommand, a trick, and a bin label. The invention, as characterizedherein, utilizes the “@” key for the “trick”. The “@” key is a primarykey on some smartphones, and thus easily accessible by the user. Basedthereon, some of the terminology set forth herein evolved. However, itis appreciated that another character on a phone (or other user device)might be used equally as well for the trick, and other correspondingterminology similarly coined. The invention may include various otherrelated features. For example, suitable character strings, i.e. othertrigs, may be sent to the At-It server to delete “ated” items or createnew bins, for example. The invention is particularly focused at textmessages. However, the processing concepts discussed herein might wellbe addressed to other communications, such as phone and e-mail messagingcommunications. For example, the user may send a text (with trig) to theAt-It server telling the At-It server to send content from a particularbin to the user via text message, e-mail, on-line document and/or phone,for example. In addition, or alternatively, the text message with trigmight tell the At-It system to send particular content from a bin to athird person (such as a friend of the user). The user and third personsmay be sent the content via different or the same communicationchannels, based on user preference. Processing might include convertingcontent in the bin, i.e. the data stored in the bin, to a text message,e-mail, and/or audio, such as a WAV (Waveform Audio File Format) file.Communications may be exchanged between the At-It server and the userregarding the status of the user's at-its, e.g. how many at-its havebeen collected, as well as other parameters or metrics of theprocessing. As described below, content may be added to bins viacommunication channels other than text message, such as telephone calland e-mail, for example. Various further aspects of the At-It inventionare described below.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an At-It system 10 in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention. The At-It system 10 includes an At-Itserver 200 in the form of a tangibly embodied computer processingsystem. As described herein, the At-It server 200 performs variousprocessing in practice of the invention, and in particular maintains bincollections associated with respective users. Such maintenance of bincollections may include adding content to a specified bin, pullingcontent from a specified bin, deleting content from a specified bin,adding bins, and deleting bins, for example. Various other features aredescribed herein.

The At-It system 10 also includes various user devices 100. Inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention, the user device 100 isa smartphone or some other device that is provided with messaging andcommunication capability, and in particular, text messaging capability.It is appreciated that the number of user devices 100 in the At-Itsystem 10 may reach the thousands or millions. Relatedly, it isappreciated that there may be multiple At-It servers 200 in the At-Itsystem 10. Such plurality of servers might work collectively orindependently relative to each other. The At-It server 200 communicateswith the various user devices 100 over a suitable network 10. Forexample, the network 10 may be in the form of the Internet.

In accordance with embodiments described herein, the At-It system 10 isinterpreted as including user devices 100. It is appreciated that theAt-It system 10 may utilize known user devices, and known networkarchitecture, with novelty of the invention residing in the server 200and the manner in which the user uses his or her user device. However,in accordance with some embodiments of the invention, the user deviceitself may be provided with novel features. As used herein, the terms“his” and “hers” has been used interchangeably.

As shown in FIG. 1, the At-It server 200 inputs a text message (receivedfrom the user over the network) and processes the text message based onthe trig included in the text message. More specifically, the usercreates a text message addressed to the at-it server 200, includes thedesired trig (with command, trick and bin label), and sends such textmessage to the At-It server. Responsive processing by the server 200 mayinclude adding content (included in the user's text message) to a bin ofthe user, (2) forwarding previously submitted content (from a particularbin) to the user, (3) adding a new bin to the user's bin collection,and/or (4) taking other action, for example.

As shown in FIG. 1, the user interface 110 of the user device 100reflects three add messages (121, 122, 123) sent by the user. Such addmessages result in content being added to a bin in the user's bincollection, and specifically, in this example, to the user's movie bin(resulting from text messages 121 and 123) and to the user's song bin(resulting from text message 122). The text message 124 constitutes asend message. In this example, the send message 124 requests the serverto send content that is disposed in the user's movie bin. In response,the server 200 sends the user the text message 125. The text message 125may be characterized as a “report message”, and includes the contentthat was previously sent to the server in the text messages, i.e. the“add” messages, 121 and 123. Further details are described below. Theprocessing as illustrated in FIG. 1 illustratively constitutes what isherein characterized as “standard trig processing” using a “standardtrig”.

FIG. 2 is an illustrative user interface 110 showing a sequence of textmessages, i.e. messages, in accordance with one embodiment of theinvention. The text messages 121-125 are described above with referenceto FIG. 1. In this example, all of the text messages shown in the userinterface 110 of FIG. 2 are generated by the user, except for the reportmessage 125. The report message 125 is generated and sent by the server200, in response to the user's send message 124.

FIG. 2 shows various further messages in addition to those describedabove with reference to FIG. 1. The clearbin text message 126 instructsthe server 200 to clear, i.e. delete the content in the specified bin,in this case the movies bin. The newbin text message 127 instructs theserver 200 to create a new bin in the user's bin collection, in thiscase create a new bin “people”. The text message 128 does not include acomplete trig. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, themessage 128 may be treated as an add message and placed in a catchallbin. In other embodiments, fuzzy logic may be employed so as to placethe message 128 in the user's people bin. Various further details offuzzy logic are described below.

FIG. 2 also shows the text message 129. The message 129 is a delete binmessage. That is, the message 129 does not merely delete the contents ofthe bin (as does text message 126). Rather, the message 129 deletes theentire bin, such as in the situation where the user no longer needs thebin. Lastly, FIG. 2 shows the add message 130. Various further detailsof the various types of text message and related processing aredescribed below.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a text message in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention. The text message of FIG. 3 may becharacterized as an “add message”. In the message of FIG. 3, thecharacter string “add@movie” is a trig (which is short for triggerstring). The trig includes a command (e.g. add) which identifies theparticular action to be taken by the At-It server; a trick (thecharacter @) which identifies the character string as a trig; and a binlabel (e.g. movie) which identifies what bin the command is applied to.In this example illustrating an “add message,” the “bin label” tells theserver what bin the content of the text message will be placed.Accordingly, as reflected in this example of FIG. 3, trigs may beassociated with other text in the message, i.e. non-trig content asshown in FIG. 3. In particular, an add message will include non-trigcontent that the user wants to remember. Non-trig content ischaracterized as any character string in a text message that does notinclude a trick, i.e. that does not include an @. In the add message ofFIG. 3, the content the user wishes to remember is “—saw preview forinception tonight, looks good”. As characterized herein, a “bin-contentitem” means content (in a bin) from a single text message.

As described herein, the particular placement of the trig in an addmessage does not matter in accordance with some embodiments of theinvention. In accordance with other embodiments, certain placement ofthe trig will trigger certain processing. In accordance with someembodiments of the invention, the trig should be separated from thenon-trig content by spaces.

In more complex uses, the text message sent from the user to the At-Itserver may also include a secondary trig. A secondary trig might becharacterized as modifying the main trig. For example, a secondary trigmight tell the At-It server to only pull content (in the bin) from aparticular time window, such as between July 1 and July 11. Indeed, anynumber of trigs might be utilized so as to command the server to performdesired processing, assuming the server is programmed to act on suchcommands.

In practice of the invention, the user knows the commands that areavailable, as well as knows the bins in the user's bin collection.Accordingly, in a text message from the user to the At-It server, theuser recalls (from memory and/or with reference to notes or othermaterials) the desired command and the desired bin, and crafts a trig toinclude such (e.g. add@movie). If a trig received from a user fails toconform to a recognized character string, the server may place thecontent into a catchall bin, i.e. a default bin. Alternatively, asdescribed herein, the At-It server may apply fuzzy logic to ascertainwhich bin was intended by the user and/or the command the user intended.In response to a suitable request by the user, the server 200 may beprovided to generate and output relevant information to the user, suchas a listing of bins, listing of commands, metrics relating to bincontent, date information, or other information. For example, the usermay have forgotten his bins, and may send the server 200 a request forthe server to send him a listing of all bins in his bin collection.

Bins may be created by the user, or the user may simply rely on adefault bin collection that is provided by the server 200. That is, whenthe user first signs on to the At-It service as described herein, theAt-It server 200 may provide a very basic bin collection and list ofcommands, i.e. for the user to get familiar with the system. The usermay then start to modify the bin collection as he or she desire. Indeed,a bin collection may have a large number of bins depending on the user'sneeds, desire to remember and/or desire to keep track of information. Inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention, more advancedprocessing of the invention may indeed involve sub-bins, andcorresponding associated commands, or other groupings of bins. Inaccordance with embodiments of the invention, a particular trig in atext message may result in action vis-à-vis multiple bins. For example,in a more complex use, the add message “send@movie,people” may result inthe server sending content (to the user) from both the movie bin and thepeople bin. Such content may be sent in some predetermined manner asdesired.

With further reference to the use of fuzzy logic, it is appreciated thatvarious default processing may be used by the At-It server 200. Indeed,the user might come to rely on such default processing (as describedherein) as such may increase the efficiency he or she can work at.Accordingly, one type of default processing is the fuzzy logicprocessing noted above. Further aspects of “fuzzy logic” type processingare described below with reference to FIG. 25 and FIG. 32. For example,the At-It server 200 may be provided to know (and the user may or maynot know) that a trig in a text message to the server “ad@m see socialnetwork” will be interpreted as “add@movie see social network” by theAt-It server 200. Accordingly, such text constitutes a quick way for theuser to place content into her or his movie bin, without having to typeout the full bin name, for example. Based on fuzzy logic processing, theserver 200 maps the “ad” in the user's trig to the command “add”. Basedon fuzzy logic processing, the server also maps the bin label “m” to thebin “movie”. Accordingly, in this example, fuzzy logic is used for boththe command and the bin label.

Also, by providing users with the capability to create his or her ownbins, he or she can evolve a bin collection that is very intuitive tothem, and highly conducive to the use of fuzzy logic, for the particularuser. For example, by design of the user, all of the user's bins mighthave different first letters in the name—such that the user would neverhave to type/text the full name. Rather, the user would rely on fuzzylogic of the At-It server 200 and only type (in a trig) the first letterof a bin name.

Accordingly, the invention highly leverages existing text messaging (andother communication technologies) in conjunction with the user'sadeptness and memory, which might be assisted by reference materials,i.e. a cheat sheet of sorts to remind the user of bins and trigs, forexample. The invention provides a highly useful, efficient, and fun wayto retain information from everyday life, for example.

As described further below, the user may modify her or his bincollections and the names of her or his bins. In particular, asdescribed below with reference to FIG. 31 in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention, the server may retain an identity of a binthat is static. That static identity may be mapped to a correspondingbin name, which is presented to the user (and by which the user knowsthe bin). Further details are described below.

FIG. 4 is a table showing various types of messages with respectivetrigs in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. The trigs inthe messages of FIG. 4 might be characterized as “primary trigs” in thatno other trig is needed (in the particular text message) for the serverto process the text message.

FIG. 4 shows an “add message” (from user): add@movie—saw preview forinception tonight, looks good. Such message may be in the form of a textmessage (i.e. message) sent from the user to the server that contains atrig (see FIG. 3), as well as content. An add message is identified bythe command “add” in the trig. The trig identifies the particularcontent bin (i.e. bin) in which the content is to be placed by theserver. If no command is in the message, then by default, the messagemay be handled as an add message. Also, any message sent to serverwithout a trick (or in some manner out of protocol) may be handled as anadd message, i.e. content message, in one embodiment, and may be placedin a catchall message bin.

FIG. 4 shows a send message (from user): send@movie. Such message may bein the form of a message sent from the user to the server that tells theserver to pull content from a particular bin. A send message isidentified by the command “send” in the trig. The server responds to arequest message with a report message.

FIG. 4 shows a report message (from server): Report of @movie: sawpreview for inception, looks good //@movie—need to watch “kings speech”.Such message may be in the form of a text message (in response to a sendmessage) sent from the server to the user that contains content from aparticular bin. The report message might alternatively be in the form ofan e-mail, phone call, or upload to on-line document such as a GOOGLEDOC document, for example.

FIG. 4 shows a clear bin message: clearbin@movie. Such message may be inthe form of a message sent from the user to the server that tells theserver to delete (i.e. clear out) all content in the particular bin inthe user's bin collection. A clear message is identified by the command“clear” in the trig. In one embodiment, a send message received from theuser will automatically result in clearing the particular bin.

FIG. 4 shows a new bin message (from the user): newbin@people. Suchmessage may be in the form of a message sent from the user to the serverthat tells the server to set up a new bin in the user's bin collection.A “new bin message” is identified by the command “set” in the trig.

FIG. 4 shows a delete bin message (from user): deletebin@shoppinglist.Such message may be in the form of a message sent from the user to theserver that tells the server to delete a particular bin currently in theuser's bin collection. A delete bin message is identified by the command“deletebin” in the trig.

FIG. 5 is a table showing various further types of messages inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 shows a bin list request (from user): @binlist. A user may sendthis message to the server 200 if the user wants a list of all her binsin her bin collection. That is, a “bin list request” message from theuser to the server will result in a text message back from the At-Itserver 200 with a list of the user's bins. Thus, if the user forgot herbins, she could send the server a bin list request, such that the serverwould then send back a list of the user's bins, to remind her.

FIG. 5 shows a server control message (from server). Further details aredescribed below with reference to FIG. 19. This type message is sentfrom the server to the user for a particular purpose. Such a message mayor may not contain a trig

FIG. 5 shows a user control message (from user). This type message issent from the user to the server in response to a server controlmessage, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 shows a secondary trig (included in message from user, along withFIG. 4 trig): window@2/1/11 to 2/15/11. A secondary trig may be includedwith one of the trigs shown in FIG. 4. For example, a secondary trig of“window@2/1/11 to 2/15/11” along with the trig “send@movie” tells theserver that it should send all messages (e.g. texts) that are in themovie bin from the particular time period. This may be helpful in thesituation where the user remembers, for example, that early last monthshe “ated” a movie that she wanted to see, but can't remember the movieor when she sent the text to the At-It server.

FIG. 6 is a diagram parsing out a send message (with send trig) inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention. The message of FIG. 6tells the At-It server 200 to send all content that is currently in theuser's “movie” bin. The trig 601 of FIG. 6 includes a command, a trick,and a bin label as shown. The trig 601 constitutes the entirety of thetext message sent from the user, i.e. the user device, to the server200—to request the server to send the requested content to the user.

FIG. 7 is a diagram parsing out a clearbin message (with clearbin trig)in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. The message of FIG.6 tells the At-It server 200 to clear out, i.e. delete, all content thatis currently in the user's movie bin. The trig 701 of FIG. 7 includes acommand, a trick, and a bin label as shown. The trig 701 constitutes theentirety of the text message sent from the user, i.e. the user device,to the server 200—to request the server to delete the content from thespecified bin, i.e. from the “movie” bin.

FIG. 8 is a table showing select processing aspects of the At-It system10 in accordance with embodiments of the invention.

A user device 100 as described herein may be in the form of asmartphone, computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), APPLE iPOD TOUCHor any other device that provides functionality to process messages andperform processing of the invention.

An At-it server 200 as described herein may be in the form of aprocessing system (, i.e. a computer system) that performs At-Itprocessing as described herein.

A “trig” (trigger string) as described herein may be in the form of asequence of characters in a message created by the user. Each trig tellsthe server action to take in response to the message.

A trig may be in the form of an add (content) string, send (request)string, clear bin string, new bin string or a delete bin string, forexample.

A “user account” as described herein may be in the form of an accountdesignated to a particular user that contains, in particular, attributesof the user, trigger strings (trigs) that are used by the user tomanipulate content, and a bin collection (i.e. a bin set) with bins.Alternatively, trigs may be kept (at least in part) in a separatedatabase, for use in conjunction with one or more a user's particularbin collection. Further aspects of embodiments are described below withreference to FIG. 10. As otherwise described herein, many trigs may beuniversal, i.e. used by all users. On the other hand, other trigs may beunique to particular users. Various aspects of trig manipulation aredescribed below.

A “bin collection” as described herein may be constituted by acollection of bins associated with the user account.

A “bin” as described herein may be constituted by a “bin label” andcontent (data collected from the user that is associated with that binlabel). A bin may be constituted by other attributes and in particularprocessing attributes. A bin is maintained on a computer readable mediumand may be in the form of a record, a folder, a file, tag arrangement,relational database, or some other methodology to associate content withthe bin label, and with the user account, and provide the processing asdescribed herein. Accordingly, the bin collection (bins) of a particularuser might be considered part of the account of the user or might beconsidered associated with the account of the user. For example, the bincollection of a user, including the bins disposed in the bin collection,might be mapped to the user account in some suitable manner.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing in further detail the At-It server 200in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. As shown, the At-Itserver 200 includes an At-It server processing portion 210 and an At-Itdatabase 250. The At-It server processing portion 210, a processor,performs various processing as described herein. The At-It database 250contains the various data used by, input by, and generated by, forexample, the At-It server 200.

The At-It server processing portion 210 contains specialized processingportions that perform particular types of processing. The specializedprocessing portions include the communication portion 202, the binprocessing portion 220 and the bin generation portion 230.

The communication portion 202 performs the input and output of textmessage, e-mail, and phone, upload to third party database, and othercommunications, for example. The communication portion 202 may alsohandle converting data as needed. For example, in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention, data from an input text message may beconverted to another format for storage in the bin collection of theuser, i.e. for storage in the bin database 270. The communicationportion 202 may also handle converting data in the bin database 270 to aparticular format for output of data via a particular communicationchannel. Accordingly, the communication portion 202 may handle theneeded conversion of data to effect the various processing as describedherein, involving various communication channels.

The bin processing portion 220 performs various processing associatedwith maintenance and other operations of the bins in a bin collection ofa user, for example, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.The bin generation portion 230 performs processing associated withgeneration of a bin, i.e. at the request of a user. In accordance withone embodiment of the invention, the bin generation portion 230 mayinclude template bin collections that a user may choose from. Thus, atemplate bin collection for a college student might include differentbins vis-à-vis a template bin collection for a high school student. Theuser might choose the preferred template bin collection and then modifyher bin collection to her liking.

The At-It database 250 includes a user account database 260 and a bindatabase 270. In accordance with this embodiment of the invention, theuser account database 260 contains various details of a user's account.Each user account is mapped, or otherwise associated, with a bincollection 280 (or bin collections) in the At-It database 250, asdescribed herein.

FIG. 10 is a diagram that shows further details of user accounts and abin collection in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 10 shows a portion of an account list 1010 showing accounts of aplurality of users. The vertical series of dots as shown in FIG. 10, andused elsewhere herein, reflect that only a portion of the particularitem is shown.

The account list 1010 includes a user record for each respective user.Illustratively, FIG. 10 shows the user record 1020. The user record 1020includes an account number, the user's phone number (or other number theuser uses for text messaging), personal information (such as addressinformation, other contact information (e.g. e-mail, landline phonenumbers)), and a bin collection number. In accordance with thisembodiment of the invention, the bin collection number (111-115) mapsinto a bin collection data structure 1030. Accordingly, the bincollection data structure 1030 is associated with the user record1020—such that the bin collection data structure 1030 may be retrievedto perform processing of a text message from the user 111-115-005. Theuser record 1020 and the bin collection data structure 1030, as well asother data structures utilized in the invention, may utilize relationaldatabase processing and other known database processing methodologiesand techniques.

The bin collection data structure 1030 includes the bin names of theuser's bins, as well as content in each respective bin. Further, eachbin may be associated with processing particulars 1032, as shown in FIG.10. The processing particulars 1032 for each bin control variousprocessing attributes of the particular bin including: the destinationthat the server sends report messages; the channel that report messageare sent, the position of trigs in bin-content items in a reportmessage; whether trigs are included in a report message; whether anythird persons are sent report messages or other types of messages; howmany bin-content items should be retained in a particular bin at onetime; whether there is rollover of bin-content item in some time period,i.e. after 3 months a bin-content item is deleted; whether there is anydelay in sending a report message; password or other informationrequired to access the bin collection and/or respective bins in the bincollection; any particular manner in which bin-content item should beaggregated; and web page related user preferences, for example. Variousother operating parameters may be included in the processing particulars1032, as needed or desired, to perform the processing as describedherein.

It is appreciated that the processing particulars 1032 of different binsin a user's bin collection may be the same or may be different. A usermay be provided control over some processing particulars 1032, e.g. inthe form of user preference, while other processing particulars 1032 aredictated to the user. The user may be provided the ability to changecertain processing particulars 1032 bin by bin, or in some globalmanner, for example. For example, the user may be provided with thefunctionality to select a plurality of bins and vary the processingparticulars of those selected bins in some collective manner. Forexample, the user might change the default communication channel thatreport messages are sent out on, or the communication channel that isused to output bin content of a user to other persons. The output of auser's bin to other users might be effected by the user texting somepredetermined trig to the server, for example. Various further detailsof the processing particulars 1032, in accordance with embodiments ofthe invention, are described below.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the user may ratebin-content items in some manner, as described further below. Forexample, the user might send a text message “add@movie1 avatar”—based onwhich the server would create a BCI with the content “avatar”. Such BCImay then be presented first in a report message as opposed to a BCI thatwas created by the server based on the trig “add@movie3”, for example.The rating, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention, dictatesparticular processing to be performed by the server. For example, asuitable send message might dictate that the server should only pullcontent possessing higher than a particular rating, and send such in areport message to the user.

It is appreciated that the user's account number may indeed be the sameas the user's phone/text number. However, such may not be desirable inthat a user might have multiple text numbers associated with the samebin collection or account, or may want to change her number at somepoint in time.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a bin collection mayindeed be associated with multiple user's devices, i.e. such that ahusband and wife might populate bins in the same bin collection. Thetrigs used by both users might be the same or might be different. Thatis, the At-It server 200 would know which user the text message wascoming from (based on the user's phone/text number) and analyze theincluded trig based on that user's trig list and bin collection, i.e.the server would analyze the commands and bin labels that are associatedwith that user.

FIG. 11 is a high level flow chart showing further aspects of the At-Itprocessing in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. As shown,the processing of FIG. 11 starts in step 400 and passes to step 410. Instep 410, the server 200 receives a text message from a user devicehaving a text message number. For example, the server receives a textmessage received from a user's smartphone. Then, the process passes tostep 420. In step 420, the server compares the user number, that themessage was texted in from, with text message numbers in the database ofthe server 200. The process then passes to step 430.

In step 430, the server determines that there is a match between theuser number and a number in the database. That is, based on the user'stext message number, the server associates the message from the userwith an identified account of the user. In a situation where the server200 cannot identify the number from which the text message originated,the server may send a communication back to the user. For example, theserver may send a communication to such user regarding setting up a newaccount, i.e. since the user is not currently registered based on thenumber from which the user texted, and thus the server cannot associatethe incoming communication with a bin/bin collection of the user.

After step 430 of FIG. 11, the process passes to step 440. In step 440,the server pulls the identified account for further processing. Then, instep 450, the server analysis the content of the text message todetermine if the text message includes a recognizable trig, i.e. arecognizable character string. Then, the process passes to step 460. Instep 460, the server determines whether there is a processable trig inthe message based on an exact match.

More specifically, in step 460, the server compares the trig received inthe text message vis-à-vis commands and bin labels that are associatedwith such user (as stored in the At-It database 250). More specially,the server parses out the command (in the text message received from theuser) and determines whether such command matches a command stored inthe database, and which is associated with the particular user. Inparallel, the server parses out the bin label from the text message anddetermines if such bin label matches a bin stored in the database, andwhich is associated with the particular user. Relatedly, different usersmay commonly possess different bins and may possess different commands.In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, it is likely thatdifference in bins will be more substantial than difference in commands.In particular, commands may be substantially more standardized withinthe At-It system, than bin names i.e., more standardized amongst allusers.

In step 460, the server determines if there is an exact match for boththe command, in the trig, as well as the bin label in the trig. If yesin step 460, then the process passes to step 500. In step 500, theserver processes the message with trig. Further details of theprocessing of step 500 are shown in FIG. 12 and described below.

On the other hand, if no in step 460, i.e., there is not a processabletrig in the message based on an exact match, then the processing passesto step 470. In step 470, the server deems that the text messageincludes no processable trig based on an exact match. As a result, fuzzylogic processing is performed to determine if a processable trig may beascertained. Alternatively, the content of the text message is simplyadded to the catchall bin in the user's bin collection. In conjunctionwith such addition to the user's catchall bin, the server maycommunicate such disposition to the user device. Alternatively, theserver may communicate with the user device to secure a processabletrig. Further details regarding such further communications aredescribed with reference to FIG. 19 below.

After step 470 of FIG. 11, the process passes to step 500. As notedabove, in step 500, the server processes the message with trig. Furtherdetails of the processing of step 500 are described below with referenceto FIG. 12. After step 500 of FIG. 11, the process passes to step 596.In step 596, the server waits for a further text message. Then, asreflected in step 598, at some point in time, the server receives afurther text message and processing returns to step 410. Thereafter,processing is performed as described above.

FIG. 12 is a flow chart showing the server processes the message withtrig (step 500 of FIG. 11) in further detail in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention. As shown, the processing of FIG. 12 startsin step 500 and passes to step 510. In step 510, the server parses the“command” from the trig to determine the type of message. In otherwords, the server compares the text in front of the @ (in the trig) toknown commands the server associates with the user in the database 270.Fuzzy logic may be utilized to determine the command. If no command isidentifiable, content of the message may simply be sent to the“catchall” bin in the user's bin collection. It is appreciated thatmultiple parsing of the user's text message, as described in step 510 ofFIG. 12 and step 460 of FIG. 11 for example, may be combined in somemanner as desired, so as to perform more efficient processing.

The processing of the server after step 510 of FIG. 12 depends on theparticular “command” identified from the trig. That is, steps 520, 530,540, 550, 560, and 570 are performed in the alternative, depending onthe particular command identified in the trig from the user device.

As reflected in step 520, based upon the command in the trig, the server200 determines that the message is an “add” message. Accordinglyprocessing passes to FIG. 13 as described below. As reflected in step530, based upon the command in the trig, the server 200 determines thatthe message is a “send” message. Accordingly processing passes to FIG.14 as described below. As reflected in step 540, based upon the commandin the trig, the server 200 determines that the message is a “clear bin”message. Accordingly processing passes to FIG. 15 as described below. Asreflected in step 550, based upon the command in the trig, the server200 determines that the message is a “new bin” message. Accordinglyprocessing passes to FIG. 16 as described below. As reflected in step560, based upon the command in the trig, the server 200 determines thatthe message is a “delete bin” message. Accordingly processing passes toFIG. 17 as described below. As reflected in step 570, based upon thecommand in the trig, the server 200 determines that the message is a“bin list” message. Accordingly processing passes to FIG. 18 asdescribed below.

As shown in FIG. 12, after any of steps 520, 530, 540, 550, 560, or 570,the processing passes to step 590. In step 590, processing of themessage from the user is complete. As a result, processing returns tostep 596 of FIG. 11.

FIG. 13 is a flow chart showing in further detail the server (i.e. thebin processing portion 210) processes “add message” (step 520 of FIG.12) in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. As shown, theprocess starts in step 520 and passes to step 522. In step 522, theserver attempts to identify a bin label from the trig based on an exactmatch. For example, from the trig “add@movie”, the server attempts tofind a bin named “movie” in the bin collection of the user. Then, theprocess passes to step 523. In step 523, the server determines whetheridentification of a bin in the user's bin collection vis-à-vis the binlabel in the trig (from the user) was successful based on an exactmatch. If yes, then the process passes directly to step 525.

On the other hand, if no in step 523, then the process passes to step524. In step 524, the server performs fuzzy logic processing on the “binlabel” that was included in the trig. The processing passes to step 525upon the fuzzy logic successfully determining a bin to which the contentwill be written. If fuzzy logic is unsuccessful in step 524, then theserver may write the content in the text message to a catchall bin inthe user's bin collection. The process then passes to step 528.

In step 525 of FIG. 13, the server writes all the content in themessage, which was received from the user, to the identified bin. Inthis example, the content is written to the user's movie bin. Inconjunction with writing the content to the particular bin in the user'sbin collection, the server may write (or otherwise associate) date, timeand/or other information with the “bin-content item” (in the bin)resulting from the user's text message.

After step 525, the processing passes to step 528. In step 528, theprocessing returns to FIG. 12 in step 590.

As reflected in FIG. 13, multiple users may respectively add content toa bin in the user's bin collection. Also, multiple users mayrespectively pull content from a particular bin in the user's bincollection. Various other manipulation of content in a bin collectionmay be respectively performed by a single user or other users. Suchrespective access to a particular bin collection by multiple users aredescribed further below.

FIG. 14 is a flow chart showing in further detail the server (the binprocessing portion 210) processes “send message” (step 530 of FIG. 12)in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. As shown in FIG. 14,the process starts in step 530 and passes to step 532. In step 532, theserver parses out the bin label from the trig in the user's textmessage. For example, the bin label “movie” is parsed out from the trig“send@movie”. After step 532, the process passes to step 533. In step533, the server determines if (in the text message) there is a secondarytrig to control a “time window” that the content of the particular binis pulled from in satisfying the user request. It is appreciated thatthere may be other types of secondary trigs that otherwise control theparticular content that is pulled from the specified user's bincollection. After step 533, the process passes to step 534.

In step 534, the server performs the processing to pull the desiredcontent from the particular bin. In accordance with one embodiment ofthe invention, the server writes that content to a “send file.” Then,step 535, the server determines if there are secondary trigs to modifythe send message. For example, a secondary trig might dictate that thecontent should be sent to third persons and/or sent via a particularcommunication channel. The server proceeds with outputting the contentbased on any such further secondary trigs. After step 535, the processpasses to step 536.

In step 536, based on the user's bin settings, processing particularsand/or other parameters, the server 200 outputs the content to the userand/or third person in a report message. For example, the user's binsettings may dictate the user's contact information to which the contentis sent (text number, e-mail address, on-line document, cell number,land number, for example), and any third party information. Such thirdparty information may dictate the particular third-party to which thecontent should be sent given the particular situation, as well as theparticular communication channel that should be utilized. A user's binsettings may be represented in the processing particulars 1032 of FIG.10, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

After step 536 of FIG. 14, the process passes to step 537. Step 537reflects that the content in the particular bin, from which the contentwas pulled, remains unchanged. Alternatively, user preference maydictate to clear the bin, i.e., to delete all content in the bin.Further alternatively, the server may simply delete the content that wassent in the report message. For example, if a secondary trig dictated aparticular time window to limit the content that was sent in the reportmessage, then only that content might be deleted from the particularbin.

After step 537, the process passes to step 538. In step 538, theprocessing returns to FIG. 12 and step 590.

FIG. 15 is a flow chart showing in further detail the server (the binprocessing portion 210) processes “clear bin message” (step 540 of FIG.12) in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. As shown, theprocess of FIG. 15 starts in step 540 and passes to step 542. In step542, the server parses out the bin label from the trig. For example, theserver parses out the bin label “movie” from the trig “clearbin@movie”.Such parsed out bin label dictates the particular bin that content willbe cleared from, i.e., the bin in which the content will be deleted.After step 542, the process passes to step 544. In step 544, the serverproceeds with the deletion processing. Specifically, the server deletesthe content, including each BCI, from the particular bin. It isappreciated that a secondary trig from the user may be utilized tocontrol deletion of content in the user's bin. For example, a secondarytrig, included with the delete message from the user, may dictate thatonly content in a particular time window is to be deleted. Furthersecondary trigs may be utilized to control other aspects of deletion, asdesired. After step 544, the process passes to step 546. In step 546,the processing returns to FIG. 12 and step 590.

FIG. 16 is a flow chart showing in further detail the server (the bingeneration portion 230) processes “new bin message” (step 550 of FIG.12) in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. The processingthe FIG. 16 starts in step 550 and passes to step 552. In step 552, theserver parses out the bin label from the trig. For example, the binlabel “people” is parsed out from the trig “newbin@people”. Such is thename of the new bin that the server will create based on the user's textmessage. After step 552, the processes passes to step 554.

In step 54, the server, and in particular the bin processing portion 220generates a new bin in the user's bin collection. After step 554, theprocess passes to step 556. In step 556, the server sends a message tothe user indicating that the new bin has been added to the user's bincollection. Then, the process passes to step 558. In step 558,processing returns to FIG. 12 and step 590.

FIG. 17 is a flow chart showing in further detail the server (the binprocessing portion 210) processes “delete bin message” (step 560 of FIG.12) in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. As shown, theprocess starts in step 560 and passes to step 562. In step 562, theserver parses out the bin label from the trig. For example,“shoppinglist” is parsed out from the trig “deletebin@shoppinglist”.This is the name of the existing bin that the server will delete basedon the user's message. Accordingly, it is appreciated that theprocessing of FIG. 17 deletes the bin itself as well as all content inthat bin. In contrast, the processing of FIG. 15, as described above,merely deletes content in the particular specified bin, and does notdelete the bin itself. After step 562 of FIG. 17, the process passes tostep 564. In step 564, the server sends a text message to the userdevice requesting confirmation of the deletion of the bin. It isappreciated that such confirmation text message (to the user) may beoptional. However, given the potential adverse consequences ofinadvertent deletion of a bin, confirmation of such deletion may bepreferable.

After step 564, the process passes to step 566. In step 566, uponreceiving the confirmation from the user, deletion of the bin isinitiated. Specifically, in accordance with one embodiment of theinvention, the bin processing portion 220 deletes the specified bin inthe user's bin collection. In accordance with one embodiment of theinvention, all content in such deleted bin is also deleted. However, itis appreciated that content in a deleted bin might be preserved somemanner. Also, functionality may be provided to retrieve a deleted binincluding content in that bin. For example, a user may be provided theability to retrieve a deleted bin with content for a particular timeperiod, e.g. within 24 hours. After step 566 of FIG. 17, the processpasses to step 568. In step 568, processing returns to FIG. 12 and step590.

FIG. 18 is a flow chart showing in further detail the server (the binprocessing portion 210) processes “bin list request” (step 570 of FIG.12) in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. Accordingly, theprocessing of FIG. 18 may be desired in the situation that the userforgets the name of the bins in her bin collection. In such situation,the user may request a list of her bins, i.e. a bin list. As shown, theprocessing of FIG. 18 starts in step 570 and passes to step 572. In step572, the server retrieves the user's bin collection and data regardingthe bins in the bin collection. Then, in step 574, the server determinesthe particular channel the user has specified to have the bin list sent.For example, user preference may dictate that the bin list for the useris sent via text message, e-mail, phone call, or other communicationchannel, for example. In accordance with one embodiment of theinvention, a user might request that the bin list be sent to the uservia e-mail, i.e. with the intent of upon receiving the e-mail from theserver 200, the user might copy and paste the bin list into her OUTLOOKcontacts, and specifically into her At-It contact, i.e. her contact inOUTLOOK for At-It, for example. After step 574, the processing passes tostep 576.

In step 576, the server proceeds and outputs the bin list to the user onthe particular channel or channels (e.g. text message, email, phonecall) as requested based on user preference. Output from or input to theserver 200 via phone call may use Waveform Audio File Format (WAV) inaccordance with embodiments of the invention. After step 576, theprocessing of FIG. 18 passes to step 578. In step 578, the processingreturns to FIG. 12 (step 590). Further processing is thereafterperformed as described above.

A report message may also be generated by the server and sent to theuser. For example, upon the user sending the server the trig“send@movie&book-report” the server may be programmed to respond to suchtrig with a report message that includes metrics from both the user's“movie” bin and the user's “book” bin. Such metrics might include thenumber of BCIs in each bin, time and date that BCIs were added, theamount of data storage consumed by BCI or bin, the date and time thatreport messages were generated for each bin, relationship informationbetween the two respective bins such as comparing the complexity of theuser's manipulation of each bin, and other information,

FIG. 19 is a user interface, as displayed on a smartphone for example,showing aspects of control messages in accordance with one embodiment ofthe invention. As described above in reference to FIG. 5, the messagesused in processing by the At-It server 200 may include a server controlmessage (sent from the server) and a user control message (sent from theuser). Such messages may not include a trig.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a server controlmessage may be sent when established protocol of messages is notsatisfied. For example, if the user sends the server a message “add@mi”,and given the bins listed in FIG. 19, then neither fuzzy logic nordefault settings may be able to identify what the user intended and/orinterpret what action should be taken upon the message. In suchsituation, the At-It server 200 might simply add the message to theuser's catchall bin. Alternatively, the At-It server 200 attempts toreach out to the user to clarify the user's intent, i.e. the At-Itserver 200 reaches out in the form of a control message. The user maythen respond with a user control message, which addresses the questionposed by the server control message. In the example of FIG. 19, the userresponded with the text message “movie”, i.e. indicating that was thebin he intended In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, ifno response is heard (in response to a server control message), then themessage might be sent to the catchall bin after some time period, e.g. 5minutes. Also, in one embodiment, a user can opt not to get correctivemessages, i.e. not to get a server control message, and have the messagego directly to the “catchall” bin. Various other default processing maybe performed, as desired.

FIG. 20 is an illustrative graphical user interface (GUI) 2001 showing auser's bin collection and related functionality in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention. That is, the GUI 2001 of FIG. 20 (as wellas FIGS. 21-25) may be presented on the user's computer in a web sessionwith the At-It server 200 or using a mobile application, i.e. a mobileapp, on the user's smartphone. The web session might be conducted usingINTERNET EXPLORER over the Internet, or using some other browserapplication or some other network, for example. The GUI allows a user tomanage her bin collection online and perform related tasks.

FIG. 20 lists the user's bin collection including all the user's bins.In this example, the user's bin collection includes the bins: movie,books, song, people, quotes, lifethoughts, and catchall As shown, theuser can view the content in a particular bin by clicking the link 2010(see FIG. 21). The user can output the content to a particular source(such as a particular text number, e-mail address, cell phone, landphone, or online document, for example) by clicking the link 2012. Forexample, the content might be output to a GOOGLE DOC document and sharedwith friends using such document, or otherwise shared. In accordancewith one embodiment of the invention, the user may specify that upon theAt-It server 200 receiving a send message, the At-It server 200 sendsthe content of a particular bin to other third persons, e.g. friends,using a communication channel (text message, e-mail, phone, for example)as desired. Accordingly, it is appreciated that various rules may beutilized to control the sending/sharing of content disposed in theuser's bin collection, and such may be disposed in the processingparticulars 1032 (see FIG. 10) in the user's account, for example. Theprocessing particulars 1032 may in general contain various processingattributes associated with a particular bin. Further, as shown in FIG.20, the user can clear the content in a particular bin by clicking thelink 2014, as shown in FIG. 20. The link 2014 does not delete the binitself, but merely clears/deletes the content in the bin

Accordingly, the functionality provided in FIG. 20, and in FIGS. 21-22,provide some functionality as that provided by the messages and trigs ofFIG. 4, described above. It is appreciated that various bin manipulationfunctionality described herein as performed via webpage (or via suitablemobile application on a user device) might also be performed using asuitable command via text message from the user It is also appreciatedthat various bin manipulation functionality described herein asperformed using a suitable command via text message from the user mightalso be performed via webpage (or via suitable mobile application on theuser device). In accordance with further embodiments of the invention,it is appreciated that further icons may be presented to the user, i.e.such that the user may select such icons for desired processing. FIG. 20also provides the user the option to modify her bin collection in theweb session (see FIG. 22), as well as to change settings in her bincollection (see FIG. 23).

FIG. 21 is an illustrative GUI showing the content of a user's “moviebin” and related functionality in accordance with one embodiment of theinvention. The content shown in FIG. 21 corresponds substantially to thereport message as shown in FIG. 1. A user might opt to bring her bincontent up via a web browser (or mobile application) due to largeamounts of content or the desire to copy and paste content into anotherdocument, such as into a MICROSOFT WORD document, for example. Inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention, the content of theparticular bin may be presented to the user in a manner similar to theway in which e-mails are presented. For example, each text message thatwas added to the particular bin of the user may be presented as arespective “bin content item” 2110. The server 200 may associate variousattributes to each item, such as time the text message content wasreceived and other parameters. Further, in a manner similar to e-mailpresentation, the server 200 might provide desired functionality thatmay be applied to each item, such as the ability to delete an item or toforward an item to a further person. As shown in FIG. 21, the button2112 allows the user to activate the bin content so as to be editable.The button 2114 allows the user to add content to the bin. Bin contentin the bin collection that has been changed may be so indicated bysuitable indicia. The button 2116 may be selected by the user so as tonegotiate back to the user's bin collection, i.e. back to the GUI ofFIG. 20. It is appreciated that date and time information that isassociated with particular content being added to a user's bin, forexample, or any other date and time information, or any other attributesin general may be tracked, documented, presented, output, and/orotherwise manipulated, as desired.

In accordance with one embodiment, FIG. 21 includes a “change bin”dialogue box 2120. The dialogue box 2120 allows a user to select aparticular BCI and move that BCI to a different bin. Each of the iconsin the dialogue box 2120 corresponds to a different bin, as shown inFIG. 20. Thus, the user might click the BCI containing “red riding hooda must see” and then click the “B” icon in the dialogue box 2120. Suchwould then move the particular BCI (and/or copy) the particular BCI)into the user's “Books” bin, such that the user could be reminded of herinterest and also reading the related book. In response to such userinteraction, the server 200 modifies attributes associated with suchBCI, so as to move, i.e. associate, such BCI with the user's “book” bininstead of the user's “movie” bin.

FIG. 22 is an illustrative GUI showing functionality related to changingbins in the user's bin collection in accordance with one embodiment ofthe invention. As shown, the user may delete a bin or change the name ofa bin by selecting a particular link, as shown. Also, a user may add anew bin (button 2212) or revert to some default bin collection (button2214), i.e. such as the bin collection provided by the At-It server 200when the user first joined on to the At-It system. In accordance withone embodiment of the invention, reversion to a default bin collectionmay, or may not, preserve existing bin content in some predeterminedmanner.

FIG. 23 is an illustrative GUI showing functionality related to changingbin settings in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. Inparticular, FIG. 23 shows that the user may change the particularcommunication channel via which the server 200 outputs communications(such as report messages) in response to a “send message” from the user.As shown the server 200 might output communications via text message,e-mail, phone, on-line document, or in some other manner orcommunication channel. FIG. 23 shows that the user may control in apiecemeal manner the channel(s) via which a particular report message issent. However, the particular channel via which other communications arereceived by or sent to the server 200 may also be controlled by theuser. Further, the particular communication channel may be adjusted insome global manner. For example, the user may want content from some ofher bins to be forwarded via text message and content from other bins tobe forwarded via e-mail. Such functionality relating to the adjustmentof the particular channels utilized my be provided via webpage, mobileapplication and/or via a suitable control trig, for example. In general,FIG. 23 shows that the user may control the particular communicationchannels utilized, the type of message that is sent, and who the messageis sent to, for example. For example, different friends might receivecontent via different channels. Bin settings as reflected in FIG. 23 maybe represented in the processing particulars 1032 of FIG. 10, for theparticular user.

FIG. 24 is an illustrative GUI showing a user's personal information andfunctionality related to changing the user's personal information, inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention. Accordingly, the usermight change the personal information that is stored in the user'saccount, as such information is depicted in FIG. 10. The user'sinformation may include name, address, text message number, and e-mailaddress, as well as other information needed or desired in operation ofthe server 200.

FIG. 25 is an illustrative GUI showing functionality related to changingthe fuzzy logic, which is utilized by the At-It server 200, inprocessing a user's message in accordance with one embodiment of theinvention. As described herein, “fuzzy logic” is utilized to deal withimprecise data from the user and provides processing, that is performedby the At-It server 200, to determine membership including anassociation, such as an association of a bin label to a bin name, basedon a matter of degree rather than a yes-no situation. As an example, anoption may be provided to the user that if the first, second, and soforth letter of the bin label (in a text message received by the At-Itserver 200) matches a bin name, then the At-It server 200 should goahead and include that text message in that bin. Thus, for example, ifthe trig in a text message from the user was “add@m” and no other binstarted with the letter “m”, then the At-It server 200 would place thetext (of the text message) in the “movie” bin. As described above, auser may come to use and rely on the fuzzy logic as a quicker way tocraft trigs and send texts to the At-It server 200.

Fuzzy logic is not limited to use in conjunction with bin names. Forexample, fuzzy logic might also be used in conjunction with “commands”in a trig, or in conjunction with other character strings, i.e. textstrings, used in the invention, for example. In general, fuzzy logic maybe used in the comparison processing of the invention to handleimprecise data. In particular, fuzzy logic may be used to associate afirst item (e.g. a bin label) to a second item (a bin in the bincollection of a user, as electronically stored in the server 200) eventhough there is not a precise match. Accordingly the bin label “mv” in atrig from the user may be associated with the bin “movies” even thoughthere is not a precise match. For example, a search and comparealgorithm may be used that identifies a particular bin. Further detailsare described below with reference to FIG. 32.

Other aspects of fuzzy logic processing are shown in FIG. 25. Forexample, the At-It server 200 might perform a comparison based onoverall similarity of bin label with user's bins, to determine which binis most similar and assign the content to that bin. Further, the At-Itserver 200 might give numbers in the trig priority over letters, oralternatively letters priority over numbers. As shown by the GUI of FIG.25, the user may select which of these fuzzy logic approaches the userwishes to utilize by checking a box. Relatedly, the user may selectwhether, when fuzzy logic is used, she wishes to have confirmation ofthe placement of a message into a bin. Other aspects of fuzzy logicprocessing may be used in the invention.

As shown in FIG. 25, a further feature is a bar 2502, i.e. a scale ofsorts to control how much fuzzy logic is used. The user can grab andmove the bar (shown) with curser to adjust how much fuzzy logic is used.The position of the bar 2502 thus varies the fuzzy logic used, in somepredetermined manner and may rely on the above described fuzzy logicapproaches (as shown in FIG. 25) or other approaches. Accordingly, fuzzylogic attributes may be controlled by the bar 2502 of FIG. 25 (or aplurality of bars) in a manner akin to the manner in which a sound levelfor a particular frequency band is controlled by a respective slidecontrol (as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,111,755 issued Aug. 29, 2000(application Ser. No. 09/038,729)), or in the manner of iTUNES SLIDERCALC—MORTGAGE CALCULATOR. For example, as the user moves the bar 2502 tothe right, as shown in FIG. 25, more fuzzy logic features are activatedin some predetermined manner. On the other hand, as the user moves thebar 2502 to the left, fewer fuzzy logic features are activated in somepredetermined manner. In accordance with one embodiment of theinvention, fuzzy logic may be used to address spaces in the trig. Forexample, the At-It server 200 may ignore spaces in a text message—in itsidentification of a trig in the text message. In such processing, theserver 200 might look to the group of characters in front of the trickas the command, and look to the group of characters in back of the trickas the bin.

Hereinafter, various further aspects of the invention will be described.

A text message as used herein generally means a message containingcharacters exchanged between electronic devices, inclusive of electronicsystems. A common scenario is a user sending a text message using asmartphone. For example, a user may send and receive text messages asdescribed herein using the DROID phone by MOTOROLA and supported byVERIZON, with novelty of the invention residing in both the manner inwhich the user crafts the text messages (sent to the At-It server fromthe user) and in particular the processing performed by the At-It serverin manipulation of text messages received from the user and textmessages sent to the user. Text messages may be sent using Short MessageService (SMS) technology, and/or Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)technology. In general, the text messaging as described herein may beperformed using any suitable text messaging software, application, app,texting app, text messaging tool, and/or module, for example.

A text message may be provided to include various “characters” includingthe 26 letters of the alphabet, 10 numerals, and various symbolsincluding characters typically set forth on a standard keyboard (such as! @ # $ % ̂ & * ( ) + = [ ] { } | \ ; : “ ″ < > , . / ? _ -), forexample. In general, it is appreciated that the invention may utilizeletters, numbers, alphanumerics, symbols, or any other character inpractice of the invention.

As used herein, a “character string” means a group of characters, i.e. astring of characters identifiable as a group of characters. Relatedly,the term “text string” and “character string” are used hereininterchangeably. An example of a character string is “add@movie”.

In practice of the invention, in accordance with some embodiments, asequence of numbers is used by the user to send a text message to theserver 200, and a sequence of numbers is used by the server 200 to sendtext messages to the user. In its simplest sense such numbers mightsimply be the smartphone number of the user and a number assigned to theserver 200. However, it is appreciated that rather than numbers, othercharacters might be used. Accordingly, the term “routing characterstring”, as used herein, encompasses a smartphone number of the user,but also encompasses any sequence of characters that uniquely identifiesa user device, server, or other processing device in such manner that atext message (or other communication) may be forwarded thereto. Thus,the term “routing character string” reflects a more generic sense of thestandard phone/text number. Accordingly, it is appreciated that anydisclosure herein of use of a smartphone number, phone number, orsimilar disclosure may instead (of a “number”) utilize any other routingcharacter string. In general, any suitable routing string may be used inpractice of the invention as described herein. Thus, an e-mail addresssuch as “user1@gmail.com” constitutes a routing character string.

As used herein, the terms type, key, enter, input, text in, and/or othersimilar terminology are used interchangeably to mean that the userenters data into the user device, e.g. such as the user keying in a textmessage to her phone.

A mobile application or an “app” (short for application) as used hereinmeans software disposed on a user's device for the purpose of providingAt-It related functionality and performing other related tasks for theuser, as described herein. For example, an At-It app might be disposedon the user's DROID smartphone.

As described herein, phrasing such as tells, talks, dictates, conveys,advises, recognizes, instructs, observes, sees, indicates and/or othersimilar terminology in the context of the server 200 (or any othercomputer processing portion), means to communicate data to theprocessing portion based upon which the processing portion will takecertain action based on programming attributes in the processingportion. An example is a disclosure of “the user device talks to theserver 200.” Accordingly, such phraseology is intended in the machinesense, and not in an oral-person talking communication sense. In similarvein, the term “know” or the server “recognizes” or similar phraseologyin the context of the server 200 (or other processing portion) meansthat the processing portion is provided with programming attributes toact on particular data, so as to perform a particular task.

As described herein, described interaction of the user with the At-Itserver 200 means, for example, through the user's user device (e.g.smartphone), the user's computer via web page, the user's landlinetelephone, or via some other processing device or system, whichinterfaces with the human user and electronically communicates with theserver 200—so as to provide the features described herein. Accordinglyand illustratively, a description of “the server 200 sends the reportmessage to the user device of the user” might be simply characterized bythe phrase “the server 200 sends the user a report message”.

The term “processable” as used herein means that the server is able tosuccessfully perform processing on the particular message, such asacting on a trig to obtain a desired result for the user.

As noted above, is appreciated that the systems and methods of theinvention may well work with existing known user devices and networktechnology, as depicted in FIG. 1, for example, with novelty of theinvention residing in the manner in which text messages and othercommunications are crafted by the user and in the server 200. Thus, theinnovative processing performed by the At-It server 200 leveragesexisting technology. Alternatively, or in addition to, the invention mayinvolve a mobile application, i.e. a software application (an “app”),disposed on the user's tangibly disposed user device (e.g. smartphone orcomputer) so as to leverage the features of the invention. Indeed, inone embodiment, features of the invention might be implementedexclusively on a user's local computer, smartphone, or other user devicefor example, in a software program. The program might handle and providethe maintenance of bins, adding content to a bin, pulling content from abin, and deleting bins, for example, as well as other features describedherein. Such processing might provide a user interface of the appearanceof a text messaging application, but indeed be working only locally onthe user's computer. In accordance with further embodiments of theinvention, such local processing may be performed in conjunction withinterfacing with the At-It server 200 in some selective manner. That is,local processing and interface with the At-It server 200 may becombined.

It is appreciated that features described herein as being performed viaweb page may be performed via a user's personal device (such as asmartphone). In particular features described herein as being performedvia web page may be performed via a mobile application (an app) on theuser's smartphone or via a browser feature on the user's smartphone, forexample.

Various features of the systems and methods of the invention aredescribed herein. It is appreciated that described features may be usedin conjunction with other described features so as to provide desiredfunctionality.

In general, it is appreciated that by allowing the user to name thebins, the user may use names that are very intuitive and helpful tothem. Relatedly, the user can thus craft a bin collection that isuniquely geared to her or his life.

The invention may utilize suitable backup arrangements. For example, theAt-It server 200 might periodically e-mail or otherwise forward all bincontent to the user. For example, all content in the user's bincollection might be sent to a document using GOOGLE DOCS, which isaccessible by the user. The user may be provided the option to downloadall bin content to the user's PC, smartphone, or other electronicdevice. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention (in responseto a suitable text message, phone call, or email) the server might faxall (or selected content) to a fax number provided by the user, forexample.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, as described below,the trigs in messages may be stripped out of the content and/or thecontent might be otherwise modified for presentment to the user orotherwise. For example, content from the movie bin might be presentedwithout the particular trigs add@movie, but rather under a collectiveheader indicating that all such messages possessed such trig. However,it may be desirable to retain the content “as is.” Further details aredescribed below with reference to FIG. 28 and FIG. 34.

As described further below, a user may be associated with multiple bincollections. On the other hand, a single bin collection and/or a singlebin may be associated with multiple users.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a trig may dictatethat content is pulled from multiple bins in the user's bin collection.In the report message, suitable indicia may be provide to reflect whichbin which content was pulled from.

In accordance with embodiments of the invention, it is appreciated thatprocessing performed is not case sensitive. In other embodiments,processing may be case sensitive.

As used herein, “data” and “information” are used interchangeably.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, as described indetail herein, the trig and other components of a particular textmessage are demarcated by spaces. However, the invention is not limitedto such. For example, a particular character might be used to demarcatethe components of a text message—so long as the server 200 knows, i.e.is programmed, to perform processing based on such demarcation.

In accordance with embodiments of the invention, the user generating thetext message using a user device, such as a smartphone, is human, i.e. atypical scenario of a person sending a text message using her phone.However, the invention is not limited to such. In particular, the textmessage might be generated by a computer processor in some manner, i.e.the computer processor would thus be the user. Relatedly, it isappreciated that the systems and methods of the invention may beimplemented in a wide variety of environments to provide an applicationprogram interface (API). Various such implementations are describedherein.

As described herein, an “add” message and related terminology is meantin a summation sense, and not in an advertisement sense.

It is appreciated that the order of components of a trig, for example,may be adjusted. For example, the bin label might be placed before thetrick and the command placed after the trick.

It is appreciated that fuzzy logic as described herein is not limited toapplication in conjunction with bins and bin labels. That is, fuzzylogic may be applied to other character strings so as to effect anassociation between text that the user has entered vis-à-vis textprocessable by the server 200.

FIG. 26 is a display showing the flow of “add messages” in accordancewith one embodiment of the invention. The total count of add messagesand/or any other messages, may be tracked by the At-It server 200 andoutput as a visual representation. Each small block on the screen ofFIG. 26 reflects an add message. The blocks may advance down the screenin a streaming fashion. A multiplier may be applied (100 as shown inFIG. 26). Accordingly, the representation shown in FIG. 26 reflects theprocessing of 7,200 add messages. The display can also include systemrelated indicia in accordance with embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 27 is a table setting forth sayings related to the invention inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention. It is appreciated thatthe various terminology as set forth in FIG. 27 is for purposes ofexplanation. It is appreciated that other terminology may be coined, inthe scope of the invention, in parallel to that of FIG. 27. For example,the invention might be characterized as a “stow” of text, i.e., in thattext is “stowed” in bins. Accordingly, phraseology based on the “stow”terminology, in parallel to the phraseology of FIG. 27, might include“That's a good thought. I'm going to ‘stow’ that”; “That's so cute whathe said, can you stow that in your quotes bin?”; “Oooo, I'm going tostow that!!!”; “Stowing is a fun way to save thoughts from life”.

Hereinafter, various further features of the invention will bedescribed.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, multiple textmessages may be sent by a user, received by the server 200, andprocessed by the server 200 in a collective manner. For example, in oneembodiment, the collective processing of sequential text messages may beused to provide content that does not include trigs. The user firstsends a text message to the server 200, including non-trig content (seeFIG. 3) as that user wishes that content to go into a particular bin.Upon receipt of the first text message from the user, the server 200places the first text message into a queue. Subsequent to sending thefirst text message, the user prepares and sends a second text message.The second text message includes a trig that controls the particular bininto which the content (i.e. the non-trig content) of the first textmessage is placed. Accordingly, in this embodiment of the invention, theserver 200 processes two text messages collectively. In such processing,the non-trig content in the first text message may be the only contentthat is placed into the particular bin. Such collective processing mightbe performed by the server 200 upon the server 200 receiving a textmessage without a trig, or some other rule or user preference may beapplied to trigger such collective processing. In this manner, the userwould ultimately receive back the content he or she wished to remember,but not the trigs that controlled placement of the content into theparticular bin. The reverse of the above, the trig might be sent in thefirst text message, and the content sent in the second text message.

In alternative processing, the content of both the first text messageand the second text message is placed into the bin. The content may beplaced together or in some segregated manner. The server 200 may respondto a “send message” (from the user at some future time requestingcontent from the particular bin) by only sending content from the firsttext message and not the second text message. Thus, the trigs might bepreserved if the user wants to view the trigs at some point in time.

In further embodiments, there may be functionality to strip out thetrigs from content in other manners, i.e. to not include trigs in a“report message” sent from the server 200 to the user (in response to auser's send message to the server). For example, a secondary trig mightbe included in a “send” message from the user to the server 200. Thesecondary trig tells the server that the server should only send thenon-trig content and no strings of characters with an “@” in them, i.e.no trigs should be included in the “report message” from the server 200.

In a further embodiment, the server 200 may simply know not to sendtrigs in a report message. This might result from the user setting apreference to not send trigs or in some other manner advising the serverthat no trigs should be included in a report message. For example, thisfunctionality might be in the form of a toggle switch (or button) thatthe user clicks on to include the trigs, or clicks off to not includethe trigs. In another embodiment, functionality may be provided (whenthe user is viewing the content via webpage or cell phone app, forexample) to not show the trigs. For example, this functionality mightalso be in the form of a toggle switch (or button) that the user clickson to show the trigs, or clicks off to not show the trigs.

Illustratively, FIG. 28 is a diagram showing the report message of FIG.2 with trigs vis-à-vis a report message without trigs, in accordancewith one embodiment of the invention. Specifically, the GUI 2812 shows areport message 2822 with trigs. The GUI 2814 shows a report message 2824without trigs.

In a further embodiment, the server may determine whether otherparameters are satisfied in order to determine whether to include trigsin a report message to the user. Illustratively, the server 200 maydetermine whether (1) a trig is positioned “first” in an add message ANDwhether the user's preferences are set to not send trigs back to theuser, if the trig is first in the user's text message. As to the firstparameter, the server 200 may simply determine whether the first stringof characters in a user's “add message” includes an @, i.e. the trick.If both parameters are satisfied, then the server 200 outputs the reportmessage to the user without trigs, as shown in FIG. 28 (GUI 2814). Insuch processing, it is envisioned that the report message may includetrigs from some “add messages” (in which the trigs were not positionedfirst) and not include trigs from other add messages (in which the trigswere positioned first). This aspect, in and of itself, may providedesired functionality to some users. That is, the user may opt, “on thefly,” to (1) put a trig first in a text message to the server if theuser does NOT want to see the trig in a resulting report message; OR (2)not put a trig first in a text message to the server if the user wantsto see the trig in a resulting report message from the server. The usermight opt to retain trigs in some bins, but not others, for example. Theparticular positioning of a trig in a text message, and what positiondictates what, is choice of design as reflected in the programming ofthe server 200. For example, it might be the case that if the trig isfirst, then the trig will be retained in the text message content.

In general, it is appreciated that functionality may be desired topresent the content without the trigs, i.e. to present the user withnon-trig content. This would provide a cleaner document for review andto further work with, which might be desirable for some users. Inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention, as noted above, it isappreciated that non-trig content is characterized as any characterstring in a text message that does not include a trick, i.e. that doesnot include an @. Thus, as is reflected in FIG. 28, any dashes or anyother miscellaneous characters might well be included in a non-trigcontent report message. This is due to the processing (by the server200) of only stripping out character strings that include a trick, i.e.the @ or other trick.

FIG. 34 is a diagram showing further aspects of manipulation andpresentation of trigs, in content displayed to the user, in accordancewith one embodiment of the invention.

As described above and reflected in FIG. 13, a user may be associatedwith multiple bin collections. On the other hand, a single bincollection and/or a single bin may be associated with multiple users. Inthe situation where a user is associated with multiple bin collections,it is appreciated that the server needs to input sufficient informationsuch that communications from the user are processable. For example,although the user's bins are in different collections, the names of allthe user's bins may be different. Accordingly, the server 200 may workoff the user's phone number (used by the user in text messaging) and theparticular bin name—such as in the case of an “add message” from asingle user, for example. In the case where the user's bin collectionshave similar (or the same names), a secondary trig might be utilized tospecify the particular bin collection to which the content should beadded. Other parameters may be used to specify the particular bincollection and/or the particular bin to which a command should beapplied.

A bin collection may also be associated with multiple user's devices,e.g. such that a husband and wife (or some other affiliated persons)might all populate bins in the bin collection. In accordance with oneembodiment of the invention, there might be provided a first user, e.g.a core user, and secondary user(s). The server might be programmed toreceive text messages, i.e. content, from any user device that isaffiliated with the bin collection. Relatedly, a particular user's bincollection might have some bins that are accessible by other designatedpersons, some bins to which content may be added by other designatedpersons, and/or some bins from which content may be pulled by otherdesignated persons, for example. In general the server 200 may beprovided to limit functionality and limit access by persons other thanthe first user. In general, it is appreciated that access by particularusers to particular bins or bin collections may be controlled asdesired, such as by a user setting preferences of his or her bincollection, and the server working off of the respective numbers fromwhich text messages are sent, i.e. the server allowing access based onthe user's phone/text number.

One example of such multi-user processing is multiple peoplecontributing to a shopping list. In this example, a user may have theeight bins of FIG. 22 in her bin collection. Seven of the bins are onlyaccessible by her, the core user. However, by the preferences that shehas set, the “Shoplist” bin is accessible by her roommate. Accordingly,the server 200 accepts text messages (e.g. add and send messages) fromboth her and her roommate to populate, i.e. add to the shoplist bin.Both users may contribute to the content of the bin throughout the week,as they think of things needed for their apartment or as they run out ofan item, for example. For example, upon one of the roommates finishingoff the salsa, she sends a text message to the server 200 “add@shSalsa”. At the end of the week when at the store, either may send a“send message” to the server 200 (e.g. send@shoplist) so as to pullcontent from the shoplist bin. Accordingly, the At-It system 10 hasprovided a tool by which the roommates may aggregate all their thoughtsover the course of a busy week (regarding items needed in theirapartment), and by which either may pull that aggregated content at adesired time, i.e. when they are at the store.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the At-It system 10provides what is herein characterized as a “trig map” feature. FIG. 29is a user interface showing aspects of a trig map 2910 in accordancewith one embodiment of the invention. The trig map allows a user toassociate short strings of characters, i.e. “list-trigs,” with content.The content might be, for example, lists of items the user wishes torecall at some time in the future. One aspect of the relationship of thetrig map feature vis-à-vis the processing described above using addmessages (e.g. see FIG. 2) is that trig maps are preferably, inaccordance with one embodiment, populated by the user via web page ormobile application (as shown in FIG. 29) versus populated via textmessage (FIG. 2). However, both are retrievable via text message or webpage, for example, or otherwise. If retrieving via text message, theuser does need to remember the particular list-trig she wishes toretrieve and generally what content is associated with a particularlist-trig. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the usermay send a text message of suitable format (send@triglist) to the server200—such that the server 200 is prompted to send a list of the user'slist-trigs, so as to remind the user of all his or her list trigs.

Accordingly, the trig map feature provides for a user to create atrig-map item 2920 by populating two fields, i.e., entering text intothe both fields of the trig map, that the server 200 then associateswith each other. The two fields, as shown in FIG. 29, are characterizedas a “list-trig” field 2922 and a “responsive content” field 2924. Asnoted above, the user accesses and populates both fields (i.e. populatesby selecting a field and typing in text), as shown in the user interfaceof FIG. 29. Accordingly, trig map-items 2920 may be populated via webpage as shown in FIG. 29 or via suitable mobile application, i.e.smartphone app, for example. Alternatively, trig map-items may bepopulated with text messaging using some predetermined trig sequence,for example.

It is of course appreciated that functionality described herein in theenvironment of text messaging, may also be applied in the environment ofother types of communications, such as e-mail, for example. Thus,illustratively, trig map-items may also be populated using e-mail. Ingeneral, it is further noted that features described herein as used witha particular type of communication (e.g. text message or e-mail) mayalso be used with other types of communication (e.g. text message ore-mail).

Accordingly, as described herein, each trig-map item 2920 (in the trigmap 2910) includes both a list-trig 2922 and responsive content 2924,which corresponds to that list-trig. FIG. 29 shows a box 2930 that theuser clicks to add a further trig-map item. FIG. 29 also shows a box2940 that the user clicks to accept a further trig-map item, i.e. oncethe user has typed in the desired text—to populate the trig-map item.The box 2940 may be lighter in color (not active) prior to a trig-mapitem being properly populated by the user, i.e. properly populatedmeaning that both fields 2922, 2924, are populated with acceptable databy the user.

In this embodiment, each “list-trig” created by the user includes an @and is in a particular format, so that the server 200 knows that thecharacter string is indeed a trig, and that the server 200 needs to acton, i.e. respond to, such trig. Thus, the user is provided the abilityto essentially “coin” or come up with his or her own “list-trig” names.It is appreciated that certain formats may need to be adhered to by theuser. For example, the user's list-trig cannot be of a format to beindistinguishable vis-à-vis the example messages of FIG. 4, such as anadd message, for example. The needed format might be imposed by theserver 200 in any suitable manner, such as by checking the list-trigformat upon the user populating the field, and advising the user viadialogue box if the list-trig is not of a workable/acceptable format.

In accordance with embodiments of the invention, the server isessentially blind to the particular text that is in the “list-trig”field and the “responsive content” field, other than confirming thelist-trig is of an acceptable format. That is, in this aspect of theprocessing, all the server 200 knows is that if the server receives alist-trig 2922 from the user (via text message), then the server sendsthe responsive content 2924 that corresponds with such list-trig back tothe user (via text message). Trig map processing may utilize fuzzylogic, such that text observed in a text message from the user that isclose in spelling to a list-trig may be interpreted by the server toconstitute the list-trig. Other communication channels may be utilized.

It is appreciated that a trig-map item may be related to one or moreother trig-map items. Accordingly, multiple trig-map items might begrouped into folders or in some other way associated with each other. Inone embodiment, in response to a predetermined trig, the server isprovided to send the user a listing of all her list-trigs 2922 andresponsive content 2924.

Relatedly, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention, it isappreciated that bin content may also be fully editable by the user,such as via web page or app on the user's phone. For example, the usermay be provided the ability to edit (or add to) bin content as shown inFIG. 21. The server 200 might reflect changes or additions to bincontent in some suitable manner. For example, the server 200 mightgenerate an “edited” indicia next to content that has been edited,and/or the server 200 might generate an “added” indicia next to contentthat has been added. Time stamp information and/or other attributes maybe associated with such edited or added content as desired. Changes to atrig-map item might also be reflected with suitable indicia, if desired.

Accordingly, with both bin content (as shown in FIG. 21, for example)and trig-map item content (as shown in FIG. 29, for example), a usermight copy and paste text as desired, or otherwise manipulate the text.For example, the user might copy text from a bin, paste that text intoMICROSOFT WORD (so as to utilize available features to organize thetext), and then paste the revised text into a trig-map item that theuser has created.

As described above, content that is input to a bin of the user (in theuser's bin collection) might be output to a GOOGLE DOC document andshared with friends using such document, or otherwise shared. Alsodescribed above is that the server 200 may send the content of aparticular bin to other third persons, e.g. friends, using acommunication channel (text message, e-mail, phone, for example) asdesired. Relatedly, FIG. 30 is a diagram showing the output of contentfrom a user's bin to a social network in accordance with one embodimentof the invention. As shown in FIG. 30, the text message is sent by theuser to the server 200. The content of the text message is “add@fbwallHeaded to NYC tonight—dinner with old friends”. The text message isinput by the server 200. Based on the trig, the server 200 knows toplace the content of the text message into the user's “fbwall” bin. Uponthe content being placed into the user's fbwall bin, i.e. a queue ofsorts, processing is initiated to retrieve the processing particularsassociated with that bin (see also FIG. 10 above regarding processingparticulars). Accordingly, the processing particulars of the bin areretrieved by the server 200. Such processing particulars, in thisexample, dictate that content added to the “fbwall” bin should be outputto the user's WALL on FACEBOOK. Accordingly, the server outputs thecontent to the user's FACEBOOK WALL in a predetermined manner. Thismight be performed by the server 200 “talking” to the Facebook server orin some other manner interfacing with the FACEBOOK server so as totransmit the content, i.e. the non-trig content, from the fbwall bin ofthe user to the user's FACEBOOK WALL. As reflected in FIG. 30, inaccordance with embodiments of the invention, the server 200 may stripout the trig from the content, which was placed into the fbwall bin,prior to that content being output to FACEBOOK. Accordingly, the messagethat is transmitted from the server 200 to FACEBOOK in this example is“Headed to NYC tonight—dinner with old friends”. The invention thusprovides the capability for a user to send a text message using hersmartphone, for example, to the server 200—so as to post that contentonto her FACEBOOK WALL. Accordingly, At-It processing may be utilized toprovide API functionality, as illustrated in FIG. 30.

In accordance with embodiments of the invention, it is appreciated thatthe processing of the add@fbwall message may be performed usingalternative processing, i.e. other than placing the content into thefbwall bin, for example. Indeed, the content need not even be placedinto a bin. Rather, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention,the server simply knows from the “fbwall” bin label (in the text messagefrom the user) that the server 200 is to forward the content onto theFACEBOOK server.

It is of course appreciated that the invention is not limited to outputto FACEBOOK. Rather, using the processing of FIG. 30, content from aparticular user bin may be output to some other social network or, ingeneral, output to some other processing system, database, person orother destination, for example. Such output may utilize a communicationchannel as desired. For example, such other processing system ordatabase might be constituted by an entity such as EVERNOTE orSPRINGPAD. Relatedly, in embodiments of the invention, a data structuredisposed in the system of an entity such as EVERNOTE or SPRINGPAD, forexample, might indeed constitute a bin in a user's bin collection. Withsuch arrangement, a user might leverage processing capabilities of theAt-It system, as well as processing capabilities of another entity, suchEVERNOTE or SPRINGPAD, for example.

As described above, the processing particulars associated with aparticular bin dictates that the server 200 strips the trig out ofcontent, which is added to the particular bin, and transmits thenon-trig content to FACEBOOK, for posting on the user's FACEBOOK WALL.In other embodiments, it is appreciated that the processing particularsof a particular bin might instead dictate other processing. For example,the processing particulars might dictate the content added to a bin isto be sent to a specified e-mail address, a phone call effected, a textmessage sent so as to control a device or system, or other communicationsent via some other communication channel for example.

In accordance with embodiments of the invention, it is appreciated thatthe bin collection of the user may be more complex than a single layerarchitecture, as reflected in the bin collection of FIG. 10, forexample. That is, it is envisioned that a bin collection of a user mayinclude sub-bins, folders, or in some other manner be arranged in agrouped or hierarchical manner. For example, the quotes bin of FIG. 10may be associated with sub-bins for various people. Manipulation, suchas adding content to a sub-bin or retrieving content from a sub-bin maybe performed using trigs that are uniquely associated with such sub-bin.Alternatively, manipulation of a sub-bin by the user might be performedusing a first trig directed to the highest level bin and a secondarytrig to control placement in a particular sub-bin positioned below thathighest level bin, for example. Accordingly, each sub-bin might beassociated with a respective secondary trig so as to control placementof content into such sub-bin. In accordance with one embodiment, thetrig to add content to a sub-bin is in the format of“add@conference-tech”, for example. In this example, the user has a“conference bin”, and in that “conference” bin are sub-bins named “tech”and “people”. Accordingly, the user can add general thoughts to the“conference” bin, specific thoughts about technology to her “tech” bin,and specific thoughts about people the user meets at the conference toher “people” bin. This bin structure is helpful in that all the contentin the bin “conference” relates to thoughts the user had while attendingthe conference. In addition, the bin structure allows the user tofurther divvy out her thoughts, as desired, to the “tech” bin or the“people” bin. In this example, the trig “add@conference-tech” wouldresult in the server adding the content into the user's “tech” bin,which is disposed in her “conference” bin. In processing, the serverdetermines from the trig that this is an “add” message, and that theserver should place content in such users “add” message into the user's“tech” bin, which is disposed in her “conference” bin.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a bin collection mayinclude a general trip bin that includes items to remember for alltrips, such as glasses, phone charger and other general items, forexample. Such general bin might be used in conjunction, i.e. groupedwith, more specialized bins of the user, such as beach bin, ski tripbin, and hiking bin, for example—each of which includes listing of morespecialized items to remember for the particular type of trip. Overtime, the user may add items to both types of bins using a suitabletrig. In planning for a trip, the user may send a suitable “sendmessage” to the server to pull both the general bin and one of thespecialized bins. The report message from the server 200 aggregates thetwo bins, i.e. combines the content from the two bins. Accordingly, theuser is presented with a useful list to help her or him remember neededitems in the upcoming trip.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention as described herein,in conjunction with a send message from the user, the user can specifythat she only wants content from a particular time window, such asbetween certain dates, for example. It is also appreciated that othermechanisms may be provided to control the particular content from a binthat is forwarded back to the user from the server 200, i.e. uponreceiving a “send” message from the user. For example, as shown in FIG.21, each item of content in the user's bin might be associated with a“send” button 2120. The send button may be selectable by the user totoggle back and forth between sending such item of content in responseto a send text message (from the user to the server) vis-à-vis notsending such item of content in response to a send text message.Accordingly, via webpage or app, for example, the user is provided theability to go through all the items of content in a particular bin andchoose what content the user would like sent in response to a “send”message (from the user) sometime in the future. The GUI 2101 of FIG. 21might also be provided with an e-mail button and a sync button, whichare associated with a respective BCI. By tapping one of such buttons,the user initiates server processing to e-mail or sync the particularBCI with some predetermined destination. The user might be presentedwith a further interface or dialogue box to control such destination. Asused herein, the terms, select, click and similar terms to reflect theuser interfacing with the user device have been used interchangeably.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, server 200 may beprogrammed to automatically create a bin in response to an “add” messagebeing received from the user. For example, the server might receive atext message from the user with the content: add@book Lord of the Rings,TOLKIEN. In this example, the user does not have a “book” bin. Theserver recognizes the text message as an add message and also knows thatthe content with trig does not associate with any existing bin of theuser. Upon such determination, the server 200 creates a new bin: book.In accordance with a further variation of this feature, a secondary trigmight be utilized (that is included in the text message from the user tothe server). The secondary trig tells the server 200 that a new binshould be created—and tells the server that the content (in the textmessage) is to be added to that newly created bin. For example, thesecondary trig might be: @new. As otherwise described herein, it isappreciated that various commands may be included in text messages fromthe user to the server 200, so as to perform desired processing.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the bins in a bincollection of a user and/or the data in those bins might be manipulatedin tranches, i.e. in some collective manner. For example, the user, viauser preference in the server 200, might dictate that he wants theserver to send report messages from some bins via text message. However,with other bins, the server 200 is dictated to send report messages viae-mail. In general, it is appreciated that user preferences may beprovided to dictate processing in some collective manner.

As described above, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention,the server may retain an identity of a bin that is static. That staticidentity may be mapped to a corresponding bin name, which is presentedto the user (and by which the user knows the bin). FIG. 31 is a diagramshowing aspects of creation of a new bin and file structure inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention. As shown, the server200 Server inputs a text message from the user with the character string“newbin@books” as a trig. Accordingly, the server generates a new binnamed “books”.

Illustratively, UB3116 (meaning UserBin 3116) is the file name theserver associates with, i.e. maps to, the newly created bin named“books”. If the user opts to change the name of the bin (at some latertime), the file name UB3116 is retained, but is merely mapped to the newname chosen by the user.

It is appreciated that “commands” as used in a trig may be structured ina similar manner. Accordingly, in accordance with one embodiment of theinvention, a user may change a “command” name. Such might be desirableif another command name might be more intuitive to the particular user.

In accordance with some embodiments of the invention, the server 200 maynot allow trigs names or existing bin names to be changed. However, theserver might allow a user to copy a bin (including the contents thereof)and name such newly created bin as desired.

FIG. 32 is a flow chart showing fuzzy logic related processing inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention. As shown in FIG. 32,the process starts in step 3210 in which the server 200 initiates fuzzylogic processing on a user's text message with the content “add@bo Taleof Two Cities”. Accordingly, in this example, the user is knowinglyutilizing fuzzy logic processing in only including, in her texted trig,the first two letters of one of her bins. FIG. 32 shows processingrelated to FIG. 13 (step 524) and FIG. 25. After starting in step 3210of FIG. 32, the process passes to step 3211. In step 3211, the serverretrieves the first letter in the bin label (from the trig), and assignsthat letter to a variable “current label letter (CLL).” The server alsoretrieves the first letter from the first bin (in the user's bincollection) and assigns that letter to a variable “current bin letter(CBL).” Then, the process passes to step 3212. In step 3212, the servercompares the CLL vis-à-vis the CBL to determine if the two variablesmatch. If there is a match, then such match indicates that such bin (inthe user's bin collection) is a possible candidate to satisfy the user's“add” request. Accordingly, the processing passes to step 3213 in whichthe server stores the bin (corresponding to the CBL) as a “possible binto add the content” (PBAC). After step 3213, the process passes to step3214.

On the other hand, if no in step 3212, i.e. there was not a match, theprocessing passes directly to step 3214. In step 3214, the serverdetermines whether there are more bins that are possible PBACs. In thefirst pass of the processing through all the user's bins (i.e. with thefirst letter of the bin label vis-à-vis bin name) all the bins willinitially be considered to be PBACs. After comparing the first letter inthe bin label (in the trig) vis-à-vis the first letter in each of thebin names, only matches are retained as PBACs. Accordingly, returning tostep 3214, if “yes” in step 3214, then the processing passes to step3216. In step 3216, the server retrieves (for each bin still underconsideration) the current letter (under consideration) from the nextbin (in the user's bin collection), and assigns as the current binletter (CBL) variable. In the example of FIG. 32, in the firstprocessing of step 3216, the server would retrieve the letter “p” fromthe people bin. Then, the processing passes back to step 3212, asreflected in FIG. 32.

Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 32, step 3216 reflects a processing stepto advance through the bins in the bin collection to compare the CLL(from the bin label of the trig) vis-à-vis the corresponding letter fromeach bin. Thus, step 3216 reflects that the server will first take the“b” (from the trig) in the example of FIG. 32, and compare that “b” withthe first letter of each of the bins (in the user's bin collection),i.e. iteratively performing steps 3216, 3212, 3213 (if match), and 3214.That is, in this example, using such iterative processing, the servercompares the “b” in the trig vis-à-vis each of s, p, b, t, c, and b—i.e.the first letter of each bin. The dashed line of FIG. 32 reflects thisrespective comparison of the first letter in the bins in the user's bincollection. After processing the “b” of books in step 3212 and step 3213(and identifying such as a PBAC), the processing will yield a “no” instep 3214, i.e. since “books” is the last bin (in the user's bincollection).

Thus, upon “no” in step 3214, the process passes to step 3215. In step3215, the server determines whether there is more than one PBAC. In thisexample, upon completion of the first pass through the bin collection(with the first letter of each bin name), the server will identify thatthere are two PBACs, i.e. the “broadway” bin and the “books” bin.Accordingly, the process passes from step 3215 to step 3218. In step3218, the server advances to the next letter in the bin label in thetrig, i.e. the letter “o”. Specifically, in step 3218, the serverretrieves the next letter in the bin label (from the trig) and assignssuch as the current label letter (CLL), AND the server retrieves thenext letter from the first bin (in the user's bin collection) andassigns such as the current bin letter (CBL).

The server then iteratively performs the processing of steps 3212, 3213(if match), 3214, and 3216 for each bin now being considered, i.e. eachPBAC. Accordingly, from the processing described above, the bins songs,people, to-do, and catchall will be eliminated as PBACs. Thus, theserver will move on to compare the “o” (the second letter in the trigfrom the user) with the second letter from the user's bins still underconsideration: broadway and books, i.e. “r” and “o” respectively. Aftersuch two comparisons, “broadway” will no longer be a PBAC due to a “no”match (step 3212) between the “o” in the trig vis-à-vis the “r” ofbroadway. Also, after such two comparisons, the processing will yield a“no” in step 3214, i.e. since there were only the two bins (broadway andbooks) still under consideration. Thus, the process will pass to step3215. In step 3215, the server 200 determines that there is only onePBCA. Thus, the process passes to step 3217. In step 3217, the serveradds the text message content “add@bo—Tale of Two Cities” to the user's“books” bin. Thus, the fuzzy logic processing has successfullyidentified the desired bin in which to place the content.

As shown in FIG. 32, step 3217 reflects a situation in which there wasnot a match identified. For example, if the user had submitted the textmessage content “add@movie ironman2 must see”, the server 200 would nothave identified a bin (in the bin collection of FIG. 32), and thus thetext message content would have been placed in the “catchall” bin.

It is appreciated that FIG. 32 is one methodology by which to analyze atrig (and specifically the “bin label” in such trig) from a user—inorder to identify a corresponding bin in the user's bin collection, inwhich to place the text message content. Other methodologies may ofcourse be used including various known search and comparisonmethodologies. In particular, searching algorithms may be utilized, suchas sequential searching in which all the items in a data structure areexamined until the desired item is located; and/or binary searching inwhich a previously sorted list of items is progressively divided in halfuntil the desired item is located.

Accordingly, the invention is not limited to that methodology set forthin FIG. 32. Also, the fuzzy logic processing of FIG. 32 is not limitedto bin labels, but could also be applied to other strings of characters,such as a “command” in a trig, for example.

In accordance with further features of the invention, FIG. 33 is aflowchart illustrating server processing of an incoming telephone callin accordance with one embodiment of the invention. In particular, FIG.33 illustrates the server processing a phone call to effect a specifiedcommand on a specified user bin. Accordingly, FIG. 33 illustratesprocessing in which the user's bin are manipulated using a differentcommunication channel, i.e. the telephone. The process of FIG. 33 startsin step 3310 and passes to step 3312.

In step 3312, the server 200 inputs a telephone call from the user andidentifies the user based on the user's phone number (e.g. usingautomatic number identification (ANI)). Then, in step 3313, the serverretrieves the user's account based on the user's phone number. Afterstep 3313, the process passes to step 3314.

In step 3314, the server prompts the user to input a particular“command.” In this example, the server inputs an “add” command. Forexample, the server might verbalize to the user, via the phone call:

-   -   Please select the command you wish to activate. To add content        to one of your bins press 1, to send content from one of your        bins press 2, to clear content from one of your bins press 3, to        create a new bin in your bin collection press 4, to delete a bin        in your bin collection press 5.        After step 3314, the process passes to step 3315. In step 3315,        the server prompts the user to input a particular bin in the        user's bin collection. In this example, the server inputs the        bin “movie” from the user. Such input of a particular bin (in        the user's bin collection) might be performed in the same manner        as the user selected the command, i.e. the server verbalizes the        bins to the user followed by a particular number to select. For        example, the server might electronically verbalize:    -   Please select the bin in your bin collection you wish to use.        For your song bin press 1, for your people bin press 2, for your        broadway bin press 3, . . . .        After the user has selected the particular bin in step 3315, the        process passes to step 3316.

In step 3316, the server performs the requested command (as determinedin step 3314) on the requested bin (as determined in step 3315). If therequested command is an “add” command, as in this example, the serverprompts the user to speak the “content” the user wishes to memorialize,followed by a predetermined character (e.g. the # key on phone).Accordingly, the server inputs the spoken content the user wishes tomemorialize. To demarcate the end of the spoken content, the serverdetects the user pressing the # key on her phone. Then, the processpasses to step 3317.

In step 3317, the server confirms to the user the particular actiontaken, and provides the user with further options. For example, theserver may verbalize in the phone call “content has been added to yourmovie bin, please press 1 for further options, or simply hang up.” Then,in step 3318, the call is terminated—“At-It thanks you for your addmessage.”

Accordingly, the user may add content to a bin, pull content from a bin,or perform other manipulation of the bins (in the user's bin collection)via a telephone call, and in particular, for example, by calling theserver 200 and interfacing with the server using the keypad on theuser's telephone, or equivalent voice recognition capability by theserver.

In accordance with embodiments of the invention, as described herein, itis appreciated that e-mail communications may also be leveraged by thefeatures of the invention. In accordance with embodiments of theinvention, the subject line of an e-mail message (and/or the body of ane-mail) may be designated to function in the same manner as a textmessage, as described herein. Accordingly, for example, upon receivingan e-mail from the user, the server identifies the user based on his orher e-mail address. The server then looks to the subject line and/or thebody of the e-mail to identify a trig. Further processing may then beperformed (based on that trig) in manner similar to text messageprocessing as described herein.

Relatedly, it is appreciated that communications may be convertedbetween the server 200 and the user device, for example. Illustratively,a communication might be output from the server 200 as an e-mail andconverted, i.e. transformed, by a communications service carrier to atext message, for delivery to the user device 100. Alternatively, a textmessage communication from the server 200 might be converted to ane-mail for delivery to the user device 100. In reverse manner,communications transmitted from the user device 100 to the server 200may also be converted.

In accordance with aspects of the invention, text message and e-mailprovide powerful transfer agents, while also adding respective possibleuser customization and convenient messaging capability. Text messagescrafted to be sent from the user to the At-It server (for processing)could be sent using text messaging, but addressed to an At-It emailaddress. The At-It e-mail address might be the common address for aplurality of users (in which case the At-It server would determine aparticular user (who sent the communication) by the sent address of theparticular user). Alternatively, however, the At-It system may provideeach user with his or her respective personalized e-mail address (i.e.joesmith@At-It.com (or joesmith@texstow.com) for example). As describedabove, various communications service carriers have e-mail-to-textservices, as well as text-to-e-mail services, i.e. the communicationsservice carriers convert text to e-mail, and/or e-mail to text.Accordingly, messaging between users and the At-It server can be easilyfacilitated. Indeed, in accordance with one embodiment, an At-It binmight be used as a contact list, i.e. an authorized, user approvedentity sends an e-mail (with suitable trig) to the particular bin, and(based on the suitable trig), the server collects data and outputs suchdata back to the approved entity. For example, the suitable trig thatthe approved entity sends to the At-It server 200 might be in the formof “send@approvedcustomers”. The server 200 retrieves the bin“approvedcustomers” that is associated with the approved entity, andsends the content in that approvedcustomers bin out to the approvedentity. In this example, the approvedcustomers bin was previouslypopulated with the contact information of users who had opted in, i.e.opted in to have the approved entity send him or her informationalmaterials, for example. It is appreciated that such functionality isimplementable in a wide variety of situations and environments.

Additionally, third party developers could use email functionality ofthe At-It server to simplify their web applications, i.e. simplify theirweb applications in that the third party developer could interface withthe At-It server without the need for an API, other than an e-mailapplication. For example, if a social website wanted to post statusupdates to an At-It bin, all that would be required would be for thesocial website to send the status update (in a communication including aprocessable trig, for example) to the dedicated At-It e-mail address forthat particular user.

As described above with reference to FIG. 28, report messages may or maynot include trigs. FIG. 34 is a diagram showing further aspects of trigpresentation in a report message from the server 200, in accordance withone embodiment of the invention.

As described above, the server sends a report message in response to asend message. In accordance with embodiments as shown in FIG. 34, theserver 200 may reposition trigs that are included in the content of thereport message.

In general, in accordance with embodiments of the invention, the server200 may reposition trigs in communications to or from the server 200. Toexplain, in some embodiments of the invention, and in particular withadd messages, it does not matter where the user places the trig in thetext message. Regardless of whether the trig is placed in the beginningor the end, or the middle, the server 200 simply identifies the trigbased on identifying the trick (in a character string in the textmessage). The server 200 then performs processing based on that trig,parsing both the “command” and the “bin label”. As described herein,there may also be secondary trigs in a text message, which the serverprocesses in conjunction with a primary trig.

Relatedly, the server 200 may reposition trigs that are included in thecontent of an add message (received from the user). For example, theserver may move the trig in each text message to a desired location. Theuser may specify, by user preference, that she always wants trigs at theend of each bin-content item (in report messages from the server), forexample. Such might be desirable in that the non-trig content would thenbe pushed to the end of the particular bin content item. Alternatively,the trig might always be repositioned by the server 200 to be positionedat the beginning of a particular bin-content item.

The trig in a bin content item might be repositioned prior to beingadded to the bin, prior to being forwarded out to the user in a reportmessage, or at some other desired time. In conjunction with the userviewing her bin content via webpage or mobile application, the trigsmight be hidden from view of the user, until the user clicks a suitablebutton indicating she wants to see the trigs.

Accordingly, as noted above, FIG. 34 is a diagram showing furtheraspects of trig presentation in a report message from the server 200. Inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention, the GUIs of FIG. 34might be presented on the text messaging tool of a smartphone, forexample. The GUI 3410 shows the trig position maintained in eachbin-content item.

The GUI 3412 illustrates a report message in which the server 200 hasadjusted the position of the trigs in each bin-content item.Specifically, the server has moved each of the trigs to the end of itsrespective bin-content item. The positioning may be adjusted as desired

The GUI 3414 illustrates a report message in which the server hasdeleted all trigs from each bin-content item. However, the server hasplaced a master trig indication at the end of the report message.Specifically, the server has inserted the character string “ALLadd@movie” to indicate that each bin-content item in the report messagepossesses the same trig. This may, in general be the case, i.e. sincesuch same trig controlled placement of the content into the bin, i.e.upon receiving the respective initial “add message” from the user. TheGUI 3416 illustrates a report message in which the server has deletedthe trigs in each bin-content item. The GUI 3416 may be preferable tosome users since it might be seen to present the cleanest presentationof content. It is appreciated that the respective presentations ofcontent shown in FIG. 34 may be presented using the messaging tool of asmartphone, via web page or via mobile application, for example.

FIG. 35 is a GUI illustrating an allowance adder, in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention. The allowance adder utilizes a specialpurpose bin, which is adapted to process trigs, received from the uservia text message, in a particular manner.

As shown in FIG. 35, the user sends a first text message 3510 to theserver “add@allowance 1”. In response to receipt of the text messagefrom the user, the server determines that the trig maps into theallowance bin of the user's bin collection, i.e. based on the bin label.The allowance bin is a special purpose bin that performs specializedprocessing. In this example, the specialized processing that the serveris programmed to perform is to input the non-trig content (that is sentwith an add@allowance trig), and to sum that non-trig content withpreviously submitted content, i.e. sum in the mathematical sense. Asreflected in FIG. 35, such summation can include summing negativenumbers.

Accordingly, the processing as depicted in FIG. 35 may be used as a toolto keep track of the allowance due to a child. For example, once thechild completes a household task or in some other way earns $1, theparent sends the text message 3510 to the server. As noted above, theserver processes the text message by summing $1 with any monies alreadysummed in the allowance bin (of the user's bin collection). The textmessages 3512 reflect further summing based on activity of the child.For example, the “add@allowance (−1)” may have been sent upon the parentpaying $1 for a toy at some point in time, i.e. such that the child'sallowance balance should be reduced by that value.

At some further point in time, the user decides she wishes to have thetotal summation, i.e. the balance in the allowance bin. Accordingly, shecrafts and sends a text message 3514 to the server—“send@allowance”. Inresponse, the server sends a report message 3516 to the user—“Aggregatedallowance is $4.50”. Accordingly, leveraging text messaging that isreadily accessible via the user's phone, the server 200 is adapted toperform processing to assist a parent with tracking his or her child'saccumulation of allowance money. It is appreciated that a trig ofdifferent content, such as “add@allowance-rb” might be used todistinguish one child from another, i.e. in the situation where thereare multiple children, and a respective allowance bin is dedicated toeach child. Alternatively, a secondary trig might be utilized touniquely identify a child vis-à-vis other children of the user.

It is appreciated that other bins may be provided by the server 200 thatprovide other specialized processing. In particular, such bins may beadapted to process the content of text messages in a particular manner,so as to yield a particular processing tool to the user.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the At-It system andthe processing as described herein might be conducive to gamingfeatures. For example, a user might be presented with a data sheet ofinformation. The user is tasked with segregating that information insome manner, sending the information (via send message) to appropriatebins in the user's bin collection, and then pulling that information outin some manner via report message. Third persons might be involved inthe game, with the objective (of the user) to convey the information tosuch third persons in some logical manner. Such processing might betimed in some manner and the user ranked based on his or herperformance. Such ranking might be used in the user's complexity score,as described herein. In summary, the user may be presented with a listof content, and the object of the game is to see how fast she can addthat content into bins, and then pull out such content—to attain someobjective. Various variations are within the scope of embodiments.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the server 200 maymonitor the pace at which the user adds content to her bins. That is,the user might tell the server 200, via a suitable dialogue box or textmessage, that she wants to add 5 songs to her music bin every week, forexample. This might be desired by the user who wants to keep up with newsongs coming out and/or in general to increase her iTUNES collection,for example. The server monitors each add message from the user thatadds content to her music bin. In other words, the server 200 monitorshow many add@music text messages the server has received from the user.At the end of the week, the server tells the user her status, andwhether she is on pace. It is of course appreciated that any period oftime might be utilized and the pace determined in any suitable manner,as desired. In general, such feature relating to the pace of additionsto a particular bin may provide a useful tool in enriching a particulararea of the user's life at a set pace. For example, every time the usertakes a notable picture of her son, the user might text an add messageto a suitable bin (in his bin collection) documenting such picture. Ifthe user has specified to the server 200 that this should happen once amonth, then the server 200 will text the user if such bin has not beenadded to at the end of a particular month, i.e. indicating that the userhas not taken a notable picture of his son that week, and so that theuser can remember to do so.

In accordance with one feature of the invention, a user may be assigneda complexity score, i.e. a ranking, as to the complexity of his or heruse of the At-It system 10. In a fun and friendly competitive manner,the user might share her complexity score with friends, for example. Thecomplexity score might be output to the particular user's socialnetworking web page, for example, such that friends could view thescore. The complexity score might also be characterized as a “thoughttool score.”

The complexity score might be based on and/or factor in a variety ofparameters such as the number of text messages processed for the user bythe server 200, the number of bins in the user's bin collection, thepace at which content is added to bins, the use of folders and sub-bins,the number of other users interfacing with the user's bin collection,the use of secondary trigs, the use of trig-map items, the use of fuzzylogic, as well as other parameters.

Relatedly, the server 200 may control functionality provided to theparticular user based on the user's complexity score. For example, a newuser with a low complexity score may not be provided with somefunctionality, such as use of secondary trigs in a text message to theserver 200. Such ranking of how complex the user's use of the system is,and affording functionality based on such complexity ranking, may behelpful in avoiding frustration in a new user. That is, such might avoidgiving a new user too much functionality, with which he or she is notfamiliar, and with which the user becomes frustrated.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the ranking of auser, as to how complex a user is, might be correlated with a “level” inthe At-It system 10. As the user works more with the At-It system 10,the user becomes a more complex user, and as a result, the user advancesin level. The interrelationship between player experience and leveladvancement is of course known in the gaming environment. In accordancewith one embodiment, the user may designate what level he or she wishesto belong to—in the At-It system. Such would place the user in furthercontrol of the sophistication of the At-It system 10 processing, whichhe or she is working to manipulate and use. Accordingly, if the user didbecome frustrated, the user would know that it was his or her decisionto subscribe to the more complex processing, and thus hopefully mitigatethe user's frustration.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the server 200provides a reminder feature. Illustratively, the user sends a textmessage to the server 200. The content of the text message is: “remind@3pm6/15/2011 remember drill bit at homedepot for kid's wood pyramid”.

Such text message is in a predetermined format and content that the userknows, and that the server 200 is programmed to understand. The textmessage tells the server 200 that the server should place the textmessage in queue, e.g. in a “reminder bin” and upon Jul. 15, 2011 at 3pm, the server 200 sends the user back the very same content that wasreceived. Such might be very helpful in a situation where the user knowsthat on Wednesday afternoon, he will be near the HOME DEPOT so that hecan pick up the needed item, or for remembering any other task.Accordingly, it is appreciated that the server 200 may be utilized,using predetermined text messages, to provide a reminder at a desiredfuture time. Instead of a particular date and time being specified, asin the example above, the user might simply specify a time period. Forexample, the user might specify that in 3 hours she wishes to beforwarded back content. Accordingly, such feature might be helpful inthe situation that the user is out and about, remembers she needs towater the plants when she gets back, and sends a text message to theserver 200: remind@3 hours water plants. The user might specify anydesired time period. The server 200 is programmed to know that, inresponse to such text message, the server 200 is dictated to push thatcontent back to the user in 3 hours. Later, at home, the user hears theping of her smartphone indicating receipt of the text message from theserver 200. The user might not even need to look at the text message“remind@3 hours water plants”. Rather, the user will simply remember—“ohthat's right, I need to water the plants.” Accordingly, in a few quickkey strokes, in sending the initial text message to the server 200, theuser has provided herself a reminder of a needed task.

As described herein, the user may, in general, vary the particularchannel that communications are output from the server 200. Accordingly,it is appreciated that the user may control the particular channel thata reminder is output from the server 200. Thus, a reminder might beoutput via text message, e-mail, or phone call, for example, or via someother channel.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the At-It system 10provides a reminder feature in conjunction with a particular bin. Forexample, through user interface with the server 200, the user may tellthe server she wants a particular bin's content to be output to her at aparticular time. For example, if a friend's (Jacob's) birthday is onDecember 9, the user may specify that she wishes the server to outputall content from her “Jacob-bday” bin on December 1. That is, the userspecifies that she wants a “report message” (see FIG. 4) on December 1that reports all content from her “Jacob-bday” bin. Such feature allowsthe user to contribute to her “Jacob-bday” bin throughout the year (asshe sees items that Jacob might like) and then receive all that content,which she has collected, on December 1. She thus is pushed useful,insightful information, in a timely manner, she has collected over theyear, to effectively purchase a gift for Jacob's birthday. Similarprocessing might be utilized in a group bin environment. For example,multiple persons might contribute to a group bin throughout the year,with reminders being respectively sent to users based on his or herpreference.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a particular bin mayhave further reminder functionality associated with the particular bin.This functionality might be controlled by user preference as reflectedin parameters contained in the processing particulars (see FIG. 10) of aparticular bin. For example, the user might create a particular bincalled “childchart” in which the user wants to memorialize the heightand weight of her baby every month, as well as to remind her to take apicture. In other words, she has a particular objective in life that shewishes to attain using a particular bin in her bin collection. For thebin called “childchart,” the user might set her user preferences todictate that such bin “childchart” should be sent an “add” text messageevery month. The processing particulars associated with the childchartbin may further specify that if the server 200 does not receive a textmessage each month, then the server 200 sends a text message to the useras a reminder. The processing might provide for how aggressive theserver 200 should be in terms of reminders. For example, if the userwants to be absolutely sure she remembers to document her child's heightand weight every month, then she might set her user preferences to bevery aggressive in reminding her to do so. For example, her userpreferences might dictate that the server 200 should send her an initialreminder at the end of a month (in which no “add message” was received)followed by more frequent follow-up reminders. On the other hand, if theuser just wants to document the information from time to time, then shemight set her user preferences to just send a single reminder, and nofollow-up reminders.

In such processing in this example, it is of course appreciated that theserver 200 does not “know” the particular purpose for which the userwishes to have the monthly reminder, i.e. to record the growth of herchild. The server 200 also does not know that the user will also use herinteraction with her bin collection to also remind her to take a pictureof her child, for example. Rather, the server knows that it shouldreceive an add message in the user's “childchart” bin, and if the serverdoes not, then the server 200 knows to send a reminder to the user, aswell as follow-up reminders if the user has so specified in herpreferences.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the reminderfunctionality may involve communications to multiple persons. That is,in the example above, the user wanted to be reminded to document herchild's height and weight every month. In a different scenario, a firstperson (the user) might be in a position to text information to theserver 200, whereas a second person wants confirmation that the firstperson has indeed done so. For example, it might be the situation that aparent wants confirmation that her son has sent a certain number of textmessages to a created bin—the user's “senior-year” bin (so as todocument the user's senior year in high school). Accordingly the server200 processes text message vis-à-vis the son as depicted in FIG. 2, i.e.with add and send messages. However, in addition, the server 200 sendspredetermined metrics to the parent (such as how many add messages havebeen sent by the son to the senior-year bin, and the date of thosemessages) so that the parent can know the son is documenting his senioryear in a desired manner. In this example, the parent is provided onlywith the metrics, e.g. how many add messages have been processed by theAt-It server 200 and added to the senior-year bin, and not with theactual content of those text messages to/from the server 200.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, as controlled byuser preference, the aggregation of content into a particular bintriggers particular processing to occur. For example, the user mightdictate, through interfacing with the server 200 and setting of userpreference, the server 200 to generate a report message after ten addmessages have been sent to a particular bin in the user's bincollection, after which the content in the particular bin is deleted.Other automated processing may be provided.

A further example is that the At-It server 200 (through programming anduser preference) automatically sends the contents from her “movie” binto smartphone every Friday night at 5:45 pm. Such is related to thereminder features as described above. Illustratively, as the user isdriving home from work, she hears the ping of a text message hitting hersmartphone and remembers, based on the ping at 5:45, that she needs todrop by BLOCKBUSTER since it's movie night. That is, without looking ather smartphone, she knows the text is her movie reminder from At-It.Once at BLOCKBUSTER, she pulls out her DROID, for example, and sees thetext message from the At-It server 200. The text message shows all themovies she has added to her movie bin over the last week, and priorthereto, or over some other desired time period.

FIG. 36 is a table showing select features of the At-It processing asdescribed herein in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.Various features are described herein which are not listed in FIG. 36.However, FIG. 36 provides a sampling of the functionality afforded bythe At-It systems and methods, as described herein.

As described in detail herein, in embodiments of the invention, the usersends and retrieves content from his or her bin collection stored in theserver 200. It is appreciated that the invention may be leveraged by theuser in a wide variety of ways above and beyond the actual computerprocessing and related manipulation of data described herein, i.e.“existential uses” as characterized herein. Illustratively, the usersends a text message to his “shop” bin with the text: add@shop rememberto see list in wallet when go to HOME DEPOT. A week later, the userdecides to stop in at HOME DEPOT, and retrieves the content from hisshop bin, i.e. the user sends a text message to the server 200:send@shop. The server 200 replies by sending the user back all contentfrom the shop bin, including the user's message “add@shop remember tosee list in wallet when go to homedepot”. Thus, the user is remindedthat he had indeed tucked a list in his wallet, and that the user shouldrefer to that list for some needed items.

In a further example, a user might hear a good song being played andsimply want to remember the time and occurrence of that song.Accordingly, the user might craft and send a text message to the At-Itserver 200: 12:12-23 pm07222011 Hearing—Don't Stop Believing—great songadd@music.

Accordingly, content forwarded back to the user from the server mayconvey substantial meaning to the user, above and beyond the actualcontent of the text message, limited only by the mental abilities of theuser and the processing capabilities of the At-It server. In one aspect,the invention forces a categorization of thoughts that are forwarded tothe server 200 using add messages, which may be highly desirable forsome users. Relatedly, a few words in a text message may remind the userof an entire experience, which he or she might write down or otherwisecapture at some more convenient time in the future. In such manner, theinvention provides a highly useful tool, literally at the tip of auser's fingers, by which the user may capture life's memories, remindthe user of needed tasks, and provide various other information. Oneobjective of the invention is to pull information out of life'sactivities as easily as possible, and to store that information forlater use. A memorable moment at a party might well disappear fromthought in a matter of minutes, unless captured in some manner. Inaccordance with embodiments of the invention, such capabilities areprovided by the server 200 in conjunction with the user's mentalprowess, using text message technology.

Further features of the systems and methods of the invention willhereinafter be described.

As described above, some bins in a user's bin collection may providespecialized processing. With a specialized processing bin, the usersends a text message to such specialized bin and particular rules areapplied in processing that text message, in a predetermined manner. As afurther example of such specialized processing, in one embodiment of theinvention, a particular bin may have a predetermined limit of the numberof “bin content items” that such particular bin can retain. If such binis not full, then the server 200 takes particular action. On the otherhand, if such bin is indeed full, then the server 200 takes otherparticular action. Such a bin might be characterized as a “max contentbin,” as described below and discussed with reference to FIG. 37.

For example, such specialized bin might be utilized in a sign-upsituation, such as in a training class situation. A particular bin (inthe user's bin collection) might be named “10session”. Other relatedbins in the user's bin collection might be named “11session” and“12session”. Such bins might be grouped in some logical manner. In anillustrative situation, the user (a teacher) interacts with students toset the students up for one of the class sessions, i.e. the 10 am, 11am, or 12 noon session. In this example, each of the sessions are for amaximum of 4 students. For example, the teacher might be talking withJames, and James indicates he'd like to sign up for the am trainingsession. The teacher then checks availability using the At-It system.

Specifically, the teacher creates and sends a text message to the server200 with the text “signup@10session James”. The server 200 inputs thetext message from the user (the teacher) and performs processing of thetext message with trig. The server knows that the text message relatesto the user's bin “10session”, i.e. based on the bin label in the trigof the text message. Also, the server knows the text message includesthe command “signup”. The server first determines the number of bincontent items in the bin 10session. If the server determines that lessthan the maximum number of bin content items are currently in the bin,then the server will add the content (in the received text message) tothe bin. Accordingly, in this example, the server will determine ifthere are less than four bin content items in the bin 10session. If yes,then the server adds the content from the new text message, i.e. adds“James” to the bin “10session”, and sends a text message back to theuser indicating that the bin content item has indeed been added to thebin. For example, the content of the text message back to the user mightbe “James now added to the bin 10session”. In generation of such textmessage, the server 200 combines the new content “James” with apredetermined phrase “now added to the bin”—along with the name of thebin “10session”. The predetermined phrase “now added to the bin” mightbe changeable by the user, or may be coded into the algorithm of thespecialized bin in such manner that such predetermined phrase is notchangeable by the user.

On the other hand, the bin “10session” may be full, i.e., the bin10session may already have four (4) bin content items. Accordingly, thecontent James is not added to the bin session 10. Instead, the server200 generates a text message and sends the generated text message to theuser. For example, the text message may indicate “10Session bin isfull”. Alternatively, the server may provide a more detailed messagesuch as “The 10session bin is full (Sam, Joe, Maddie and Jill)—pleasetext in request for further bin.” Accordingly, the text message back tothe user might specify the content already added to the 10session bin,for example the students that have already signed up for the 10 o'clocksession.

FIG. 37 is a flowchart showing further aspects of “max content bin”processing in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. As shown,the process starts in step 3700 and passes to step 3702. In step 3702,the server inputs a text message from the user. For example, the textmessage might be “signup@10session James”. The server processes the textmessage to determine both the command “signup” as well as the bin label“10session”. Both the command and the bin label are determined from thetrig in the text message from the user. Then, the process passes to step3704. In step 3704, the server determines that the text message is for aspecialized bin and retrieves the particular processing and otherparticulars that are associated with such specialized bin. Then, theprocess passes to step 3706.

In step 3706, per the processing associated with the specialized bin,i.e. the rule set, the server compares a predetermined parametervis-à-vis the number of bin content items currently in the particularbin. For example, the server compares a parameter (bin_max_content)vis-à-vis the number of bin-content items currently in the bin(current_num_BCI). Then, the process passes to step 3710.

In step 3710, the server determines whether the threshold situation issatisfied. Specifically, in the example of FIG. 37, the serverdetermines:

-   -   Is bin_max_content>current_num_BCI?

If the determination is no in step 3710, then the process passes to step3712. In step 3712, the server sends a text message, or some othersuitable communication, to the user that the 10 session bin is full andthat the user should make an alternative request. On the other hand, ifthe determination is yes in step 3710, then the process passes to step3714.

In step 3714, the server increases the variable current_num_BCI by one:

-   -   (current_num_BCI gets current_num_BCI+1)

Then, in step 3716, the server adds the content, e.g., “James”, to thebin 10session. Then, in step 3718, the server sends confirmation to theuser that the content has been added to the bin 10session, as requestedby the user. After step 3718, the process passes to step 3719.

In step 3719, processing of the specialized bin “max content bin” iscompleted.

In the example set forth above, only the user, i.e. the teacher,communicated to the server in manipulation of the teacher's bincollection. However, it is appreciated that in other embodiments, theuser might open up access to specific bins so as to be manipulated byothers. For example, in this embodiment, the teacher might allow each ofthe students, and provide each student with suitable credentials to doso, to interact with the teacher's bin collection. Accordingly, thestudent James himself could send the text message “signup@10sessionJames” to the server 200 and in particular to the teacher's bincollection. Thus, James would be allowed to interact with a subpart ofthe teacher's bin collection so as to sign up for sessions, i.e.populate specific bins of the teacher, as well as to receive responsivecontent from the server regarding whether particular bins of the teacherhad or had not reached their maximum capacity e.g. four students asdescribed above. If the bins “10session”, “11session” and “12session”are grouped in some manner, then access by such third persons might beprovided only to bins in such particular group. Accordingly, it isappreciated that in general the groupings of bins may be utilized tocontrol access and/or other manipulation of bins in the particulargroup.

FIG. 38 is a diagram showing a further example of processing of aspecialized bin (a year anniversary bin 3800) in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention. The processing performed by the anniversarybin 3800 includes inputting an “add message” from the user and adding abin content item to the bin 3800 based on that add message. In additionto creating a bin content item to hold the content from the user, theserver 200 also populates a date and time field in the bin content item.The date and time field documents when the text message was receivedfrom the user. Further, the processing associated with the bin 3800includes the server sending the user a text message upon the yearanniversary, i.e. one year after the text message was originallyreceived from the user.

In the example of FIG. 38, the user has texted to the server “add@anniv2011 Soccer tournament started”. As reflected in FIG. 38, the serverprocesses the text message based on the trig “add@anniv”. That is, thecommand “add” tells the server to add the associated content to a bin,and the server determines the bin, to which the content should be added,based on the bin label “anniv”. Accordingly, this example isillustrative of the server using fuzzy logic to map the abbreviated“anniv” bin label that was received from the user to the actual name ofthe bin “anniversary”. As shown, the server populates the bin contentitem to reflect the date and time that such text message was receivedfrom the user, i.e. Oct. 12, 2011—8 am. Accordingly, the functionalityprovided by the anniversary bin 3800 is that one year after receipt ofthe text message from the user, the server generates an anniversary textmessage and sends that text message to the user, i.e. to remind the userthat it was one year ago that the particular event happened.

FIG. 39 is a flowchart showing further aspects of the processing of thespecialized “year anniversary bin” in accordance with one embodiment ofthe invention. That is, FIG. 39 shows the generation of the one yearanniversary text message to the user. As shown, the processing starts instep 3900. Then, in step 3902, on Oct. 12, 2012—8:00 am, the server 200determines that it has been one year. The process then passes to step3904.

In step 3904, the server retrieves a predetermined lead in phrase “Itwas one year ago:” Then, in step 3905, the server aggregates the lead inphrase with the bin content including the text “2011 Soccer Tournamentstarted” and the time/date particulars “Oct. 12, 2011—8:00 am”. Then,the process passes to step 3906.

In step 3906, the server outputs the text message to the user—“It wasone year ago: 2011 Soccer Tournament started Oct. 12, 2011—8:00 am”.Accordingly, the user is reminded of the year anniversary of theparticular event.

After step 3906, the process passes to step 3908. In step 3908, theprocess ends.

In this example, it is appreciated that particulars of an eventincluding subject, date and time information may be pushed out to adestination document as desired, in addition to output to the user. Forexample, such particulars may be output by the server so as to populatea calendar of the user as desired. In general, it is appreciated thatdata disposed in a bin, including data in a bin content item, as well asparticulars associated with such content, may be pushed out so as topopulate a calendar or other document as desired. Accordingly, theserver may populate a calendar based on the bin content items shown inFIG. 38, so as to remind the user of the momentous events in aparticular time period.

The processing of FIG. 38 and FIG. 39 are described in the context of aone year anniversary. However, the invention is of course not limited tosuch time period. Rather, any suitable time period, such as a week or amonth, might be utilized. Further, it is appreciated that the user mightpull all content from the anniversary bin 3800 using a suitable trig,such as send@anniversary.

FIG. 40 is a flowchart showing processing performed by a “diddate” bin,a specialized bin, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.In the processing of the diddate bin, the server 200 inputs a textmessage from the user of the nature of “sam@diddate Sep. 30, 2011 Samretired”. The server takes such date Sep. 30, 2011 in Sam's life, anddetermines the corresponding date in the user's life. Accordingly, suchfunctionality allows the user the capability to track an event inanother person's life (and the date in the other person's life uponwhich the event occurred) into a corresponding date in the user's life.

Features of the diddate processing are shown in FIG. 40. The processstarts in step 4000 and passes to step 4002. In step 4002, the serverinputs a text message to initiate the diddate processing. Then, in step4004, the server processes the command and bin label from the trig inthe text message. The bin label diddate tells the server the bin to acton. The command “Sam” conveys the user wants the server to performspecialized processing associated with the specialized bin “diddate” asto the user's contact Sam. The server already has Sam's birthdate inmemory. Then, in step 4006, the server retrieves the particularprocessing particulars that are associated with the diddate bin. Then,in step 4010, the server reads the content from the user's text message.The server recognizes and parses out the date in the content of the textmessage. The server recognizes and parses out any other content, such as“Sam's retired” for later inclusion in the text message the user. Then,in step 4012, per the particular processing associated with the diddatebin, the server retrieves the birthdate of Sam from memory. Then, instep 4014, the server determines the difference between Sam's birthdateand the date of the event, i.e., the data Sam retired. Then, in step4016, the server adds the difference onto the user's birthday. Then, instep 4017, the server generates and outputs the text message to the userwith the results of the calculation. In the example of FIG. 40, the textmessage from the server to the user might read

It is appreciated that the processing of FIG. 40 requires theavailability of certain data, such as the user's date of birth, as wellas the other person's date of birth. Such data may already be availablein the data stores of the server. If such data is not available, thenthe server could prompt the user for any further needed data.

It is appreciated that the processing of specialized bins describedherein might alternatively be performed in the manner of a “calculator,”which prompts the user for the needed inputs and performs processing soas to generate the outputs as desired. Alternatively, the processing ofspecialized bins may be performed in some other manner, using localprocessing performed at the user's computer or smartphone (with an app),for example.

As described herein, the systems and methods of the invention providefor bins that perform specialized processing. In accordance with onecharacterization of the invention, such specialized processing (by abin) might be characterized as processing of bin-less data, i.e. datathat is not actually placed into a bin, or only temporarily placed in abin during processing. Accordingly, the processing of a particular binmay be performed, based on a text message received from the user, andthe resultant data (generated by the server) immediately output toeither the user or some other destination, such as a social networksite, as described herein, for example. As a result, the data may neveractually be placed in a bin, but rather processed only for one querythat generates one response or other output.

Various specialized bins and their associated processing are describedherein. It is appreciated that other specialized bins may be provided bythe invention to perform other desired functionality. For example, aspecialized bin may be provided to parse or prioritize information insome particular manner. Relatedly, it is appreciated that a specializedbin (performing specialized processing) may be invoked that indeed callson the information (content) in some other bin or bins. For example, aspecialized bin may be included in the server that simply alphabetizescontent. Using a suitable trig, the user might call on such specializedbin to process content in her book bin. Accordingly, in performing theprocessing of such specialized bin, the server would pull the contentfrom the user's book bin, alphabetize that content, and return thealphabetized content back to the user's book bin, for example. It isappreciated that various other parsing, organization, prioritization andother processing might be performed by a specialized bin of the server200. For example, the user might use a specialized bin (a data parsingengine) to send single pieces of data or arrays that align themselves insome predetermined manner.

In accordance with embodiments of the invention, the server 200 mayprocess a text message with various content attached to the textmessage. In particular, in accordance with the processing describedherein, the server 200 may process a text message containing both (1)user entered text in the body of the text message and (2) video, image,and/or sound content, for example. Such a message is commonlycharacterized as an MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) message. Othertypes of text messages may also be processed by the invention.

In some embodiments of the invention, the server 200 processes only thetext, in the text message, in order to determine processing to beperformed on the text message. That is, the multimedia content that isattached to the text does not affect the processing of the text message,but merely is associated with the text. For example, the bin-contentitem 2110 of FIG. 21 could also include a picture (image 2110′) that theuser took of the movie poster at the theater (and that the user includedin the original text message along with the text “add@movie red ridinghood a must see” to the server 200). The server performs processing onthe text in the text message so as to add the text to the “movie” bin.The particular picture does not affect such processing, but is merelyincluded in the particular bin-content item 2110, or in some mannerattached or associated to the particular bin-content item for laterretrieval.

In accordance with other embodiments of the invention, the content ofmultimedia in a text message may indeed affect the processing.Accordingly, the invention provides a system that allows MMS messages tobe sent with video, image, and/or audio, interpreting information in theincoming sound, image or video and applying predetermined processing tosuch information. Such information may include a trig as describedabove, or portions of a trig. Thus bins could become not onlytext-based, but allow in multimedia of any kind, and allow thatmultimedia to be manipulated in some predetermined manner, such as beingparsed, tagged, and/or interpreted. Accordingly, the server 200 mayprocess the content of text in a text message and multimedia content ina text message in a smart manner. Thus, the server 200 might process thetext message based on the text and/or the content of multimedia (sound,image and/or video) in the text message.

Illustratively, the user might send a text message using her smartphoneto the server 200 with a picture and the text “add@”. The picture, takenby the user with her smartphone, is of a Red Riding Hood movie poster,in this example. Using an algorithm, the server knows from the text(i.e. the trig “add@”) that the user wants to add the content into oneof the user's bins. Further, the server 200 discerns text in the pictureusing character recognition, and identifies the text “red riding hood”in the picture. Based on associations in a database of the server, theserver determines that “red riding hood” corresponds to either a movieor a book, and further knows that the user has a movie bin, but no bookbin. Thus, the server, based on the algorithm, renders the conclusionthat the text message (with text and image) is to be placed in the moviebin of the user.

Accordingly, in embodiments of the invention, the text in a text messageand/or multimedia content (sound, image and/or video, for example) inthe text message may be used to control processing of that text message,such as to dictate placement of the text message into a particular binin the user's bin collection. Such processing might include the additionof the content in the text message to one of the user's bins, or theretrieval of content, for example. It is appreciated that the aboveprocessing may include interface with the user to receive confirmationof particular action to be taken.

Accordingly, the invention may effectively provide an intelligentinterpretation engine in the server 200 that can discern and/or stripinformation from multimedia as well as text and use it to do variousactions, such as (1) store content, (2) generate automatic reminders (asotherwise described herein), and (3) automatically organize content inthe text message including text content and/or multimedia content, andrecall such content through both tagging and binning, and as otherwisedescribed herein. Relatedly, it is appreciated that the server 200 mayinterface with the user via voice queries and/or other voicecommunications using suitable communication channels.

Relatedly, in accordance with embodiments of the invention, the systemof the invention may be characterized as being content-aware. That is,the server 200 may be provided, using suitable algorithm, to understandthe meaning of data as well as its intent. For example, one could text“add@budget 100.65” and the content-aware system would understand thatthis value is intended as a money amount, and that such money amountshould be deducted from the user's budget as represented in one of theuser's bins. For example, the user might keep different bins fordifferent budgets, such as a home maintenance budget and a carmaintenance budget, for example. This understanding by the server 200could then be used by the server 200 to provide helpful responses toqueries, including plain English queries, as well as possibly generatingautomatic responses when, for example, the user's budget is approachingsome threshold value. The server 200 might provide such processing bymapping certain observed content and/or the context of such content inthe user's bin vis-à-vis particular responses to be generated. That is,if certain content is observed in a certain bin, with certain parametersobserved, then the server will generate a particular response.

A non-numerical example of such processing would be the use of a grocerylist. Data that is added would be interpreted as products to buy. Theywould be listed as such, and would be given additional query-ablevalues, such as the nature of the item i.e., the additional queryablevalues might respectively reflect the nature of the item. For example,(upon the user requesting content from his grocery bin, before the usergoes to the grocery store), the server 200 sends the user the contentsof the user's grocery bin, as well as alerting the user that no dairyproducts are included in such content. Such alert may be generated bythe server based upon a predetermined rule set. The rule set might bebased upon the life reality that the user generally always purchases atleast one dairy product at the grocery store. Accordingly, the absenceof any dairy product from the user's grocery bin is out of routine forthe user, and it would be helpful for the user to be alerted to suchobserved situation. For example, an alert might be sent to the user inthe form of a further text message and/or included along with thecontent of the grocery bin.

In accordance with further embodiments of the invention, the inventionprovides processing for the server 200 to act as an intelligentinformation responder in other manners. That is, in accordance withembodiments of the invention, the server may be provided to input datain plain English (or other languages), be understood, and giveintelligent responses based on content-aware capabilities. Inembodiments, this would allow queries of non-indexed information, i.e.information that does not confirm to the particular trig protocol asdescribed above. Accordingly, intelligent, native-language request ofthe system could be made by the user and could be responded to by theserver 200. Further aspects of such processing are described below withreference to FIGS. 41 and 42. For example, queries for the user's“grocery list” bin could include locations where they can be purchased,particular aisle location in a store, sales, news, and recalls, forexample. Such requests might be input by the server from the user viatext in a text message or audio that is converted using OCR (opticalcharacter recognition) technology, for example. The content of suchinformation may then be analyzed by the server to achieve anunderstanding of such information. For example, words in suchinformation received from the user may be mapped to predeterminedcommands, i.e. directives, that the server understands. FIGS. 41 and 42,described below, illustrate such processing.

Relatedly, it is appreciated that third party processing enginesavailable via the Internet might be utilized by the server 200. Forexample, the server 200 might output information to a resource on theInternet so as to achieve further understanding of such information.That is, the third party processing engine could take the informationreceived from the server 200, perform processing using the capabilitiesof such third party processing engine, and return more digestibleinformation back to the server, i.e. information that is moreprocessable by the server 200. A third-party processing engine mightalso provide capability to assist the server in generating advertisingmaterial. For example, the server 200 could secure advertising materialbased on an association between bin content vis-à-vis relatedadvertising material, such association being performed by the thirdparty resource.

It is appreciated that the server 200 may perform processing on contentin a particular bin and associate that content with other information insome predetermined manner. Such other information might be secured fromother resources on the Internet, for example. Such other informationmight indeed be added to the particular bin content item and/or suchother information might be somehow associated with the particular bincontent item. Further, it is appreciated that the particular contents ofa bin may be organized in any manner as desired. For example, the bincontent items in a particular bin might simply be organizedalphabetically, based on some categorization, or based on someprioritization scheme, for example.

As noted above, FIG. 41 is a diagram showing content aware processing ofthe server in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. Morespecifically, FIG. 41 illustrates processing performed by a naturallanguage processing portion 240 in the server 200. The processingportion 240 includes a word set collection (WSC) 4120. The word setcollection 4120 includes a plurality of word sets (4122-4128). Forexample, the “word set 1” 4122 includes the words fetch, get, give,pull, retrieve and send. Accordingly, the word set 4122 includes variousterms relating to getting content from a bin of the user.Illustratively, using the processing of FIG. 41, the server mayunderstand a text message from a user “get book” to constitute a sendmessage requesting content from the user's “book” bin, i.e. such “getbook” character string in the text message from the user would beequated (by the processing of server) to the trig “send@book”.

Upon receiving a text message, the processing portion 240 looks for suchwords in the text message. If any of the words in the word set 4122 areobserved, then the word set 4122 is tagged by the server as an “activeword set”. The server advances through each word in the text message(received from the user) and based on the comparison of each word in thetext message vis-à-vis words in the word sets, the server identifies anyfurther active word sets.

FIG. 41 also shows word set collection directives 4130. The word setcollection directives 4130 include a plurality of directives (4132-4138)that are respectively associated with a particular word set. However, itis appreciated that such one-to-one correspondence is not necessarilyrequired, i.e., in that multiple word sets might map to the samedirective.

As shown in FIG. 41, mapping into the directive 4132 triggers the serverto pull content from a particular bin. Thus, mapping into the directive4132 is equivalent to a “send” command in a trig. The directive 4134 iscomplementary to the directive 4132. That is, the directive 4134 tellsthe server to pull “all” content from the particular bin. Thus, anotherword set (not shown) might be provided to tell the server to only pull aportion of content from a particular bin. For example, such directivemight tell the server to pull only recent (within last week, e.g.)content from a particular bin (if the word “recent” is in the textmessage), or content from a particular time window.

Accordingly, the directives 4132 and 4134 might be characterized ascommands to effect certain action, i.e. equivalent to a command in atrig as described above. On the other hand, the directives 4136 and 4138might be characterized as bin labels to effect the retrieval of contentfrom a particular bin, i.e., equivalent to a bin label in a trig asdescribed above.

FIG. 42 is a flowchart showing further aspects of natural languageprocessing in accordance with embodiments of the invention. As shown,the process starts in step 4210 and passes to step 4212. It isappreciated that natural language processing as described herein may becoordinated with fuzzy logic processing as described herein, in somesuitable manner. For example, in a text message from a user, the servermight analyze each string of characters containing an “@” to determineif it satisfies some threshold of similarity with a list of trigsmaintained by the server. If the threshold similarity is attained, thenthe server processes the message using fuzzy logic, else the message isprocessed using natural language.

In step 4212, the server determines that the text message from the userdoes not have a formal trig therein. As a result, the server invokes thenatural language portion in the server, e.g., the processing portion240. Then, the process passes to step 4215.

In step 4215, the server determines if the first word in the textmessage (received from the user) matches with any word in the word setcollection 4120. If yes, then the process passes to step 4216.

In step 4216, the server determines which word set the matched word isin, and tags that word set as an “active word set.” Further, the servermaps that active word set to a directive 4130. For example, the serverdetermines that the first word “give” in the text message matches to“give” in word set 1 (4122), and then maps word set 1 (4122) to the WSCdirective 4132. The word set collection directives may dictateparticular action to be performed or a particular bin to perform thecommand upon, for example. After step 4216, the process passes to step4218.

If, on the other hand, in step 4215, the server determines that theparticular text message word under consideration does not match with anyword in the word set collection, then the process passes directly tostep 4218.

In step 4218, the server determines if there are any more words in thetext message from the user. If yes, then the process returns to step4215, and the server determines whether such next word in the textmessage matches with any word in the word set collection 4120.Processing then continues on as described above.

If, on the other hand, the processing determines in step 4218 that thereare not any more words in a text message from the user, i.e. “no” instep 4218, the process passes to step 4220.

In step 4220, the server determines if there are any conflicts betweenidentified directives, and the server attempts to resolve any suchconflicts based on predetermined rule sets in place. For example, suchrule sets might be based on a prioritization scheme, such as ahierarchy, based on the order of words in the text message, defaultsettings, or based on some other scheme. In general, it is appreciatedthat the server may interface with the user to resolve any unresolveddecisioning.

For example, the user might text “Put ‘All the right Moves’ into my bookbin”. “All the right moves” is indeed the title of the book that theuser wishes to remember at some later time. However, prioritization isneeded in the processing of the server to distinguish such text messagevis-à-vis a text message intended by the user to place content into theuser's movie bin. In this situation, it might be the case that the term“book” corresponds exactly with the user's “book bin”. On the otherhand, the word “moves” does not correspond exactly with the user's“movie bin”. Accordingly, a prioritization scheme might dictate that anexact matches take priority over inexact matches. Accordingly, thecontent of the text message would be appropriately placed into theuser's book bin.

With further reference to FIG. 42, after step 4220, the process passesto step 4222. In step 4222, the server determines whether all conflictswere resolved between identified directives. If yes, then the processpasses to step 4224. In step 4224, the server performs action isdictated by the directives that were mapped to by the server.

On the other hand, if “no” in step 4222, then the process passes to step4226. In step 4226, the server interfaces with the user so as to resolveany unresolved conflicts. For example, the server interfaces with theuser via text message to clarify requested action, and thereafterperforms action as dictated by the directives that were mapped to, aswell as any received user clarification.

After either of step 4224 or step 4226, the process passes to step 4228.In step 4228, the natural language processing ends.

As described above, FIG. 41 includes a plurality of word sets in theword set collection 4120. For example, the word set 4122 includes sixwords. In implementation of the systems and methods of the invention, itis appreciated that the word set collection may include hundreds andperhaps thousands of words. Each of those words may be mapped to aparticular directive 4130 and/or mapped to other words which in turn aremapped to a particular directive. It is appreciated that the mapping ofwords in the word set collection may utilize known training technology,such as neural network technology. Such training technology may utilizefeedback secured from the user regarding both correct mappings of words(in a text message from the user) and incorrect mappings.

As described above, in accordance with some embodiments of theinvention, the invention might be embodied in an application that isdisposed locally on the user's computer. For example, such anapplication might be downloaded and installed on the user's PC, forexample. Such application might be characterized as a desktop client.Such desktop client may be provided to allow the user various processingsuch as direct access to bins, as well as submission of multimedia andtext data through a text box, uploading files, and interface with theapplication via microphone and web cam, for example. Assuming suitablepermissions being in place, the desktop client could also enable queriesabout the computer on which the desktop client is installed, such as thenumber of add messages processed and the number of send messagesprocessed. Further, it is appreciated that using cloud relatedtechnology, such an application could be used as a processing node withcustomer approval. That is, such a desktop client might tap into theprocessing resources of the computer upon which the desktop client isinstalled, i.e. using the computer's unused processing time to processqueries for the server 200. Such use of resources would of course beperformed with all appropriate permissions from the customer in place.Relatedly, it is appreciated that the server 200 might support bincollections of respective users—some of which are stored on the server200 itself and others which are stored in respective desktop clients ona user's respective personal computer. The server 200 might access anduse such processing resources as are needed to perform requestedprocessing. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, thisfeature could give the user's preferable treatment of some type, forexample, based on the user's processing capabilities that were accessedand utilized by the server 200.

It is appreciated that processing as described herein as being performedby the server 200 may of course be performed by any suitable computerprocessing portion that is programmed to perform such processing.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the user mayrespectively tag bin-content items in a list on her smartphone. FIG. 43is a diagram showing “bin modify processing” in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention. Bin modify processing provides thecapability for the user to essentially selectively check off items in alist received from the server 200. For example, as the user picks up anitem in her list, as she shops, she modifies the list, received fromserver—and specifically modifies bin content items (in the list) in somemanner. For example, as described below, she types in “DD” to reflectthat such item has been picked up, i.e. the task as to that item is“done.”. The modified list is then sent back to the server. Based on themodified list from the user, the server generates modified bin content,and populates the particular bin with such modified bin content.Further, the server might generate a master list. The master listretains all content previously in the particular bin, as well as newcontent added to the bin. Such processing is particularly helpful withrecurring lists. Further features will be described with reference toFIG. 43.

FIG. 43 shows the interface of the smartphone including multiple textmessages, collected over time, as well as an active screen 4302 in whichthe user can craft a text message in accordance with one embodiment ofthe invention. As shown in FIG. 43, the user has previously added coffeeand lemonade to her grocerylist bin. The user has then requested theserver to send her grocery list to her, i.e. the user texts to theserver the trig “send@grocerylist”. In response, the server sends theuser the generated list 4310 based on the current bin content in thegrocerylist bin. Accordingly, such processing reflects basic addingcontent to a particular bin and pulling aggregated content from thatparticular bin, as described above with reference to FIG. 1, forexample.

In accordance with the “bin modify processing,” the user then modifiesthat generated list 4310. In order to modify the list 4310, the userfirst copies the text from the text message 4310 and then pastes thatcopied text into the active screen 4302, i.e. such that the user maythen work with, i.e. edit, the active list 4320. In this manner, theuser has effectively rendered editable the list 4310 received from theserver, i.e., the report message received from the server. The copy andpaste functionality may be performed using known smartphone technology.

Accordingly, as the user shops in the grocery store, the user edits theactive list 4320 so as to reflect the items that she has picked up. Forexample, upon the user picking up milk, the user types in the letters DDwithin or adjacent to the bin content item “milk” In this example,respective bin content items are demarcated using commas. However, it isof course appreciated that other demarcations may be utilized toseparate bin content items, i.e., such as slashes, a semicolon, or someother character.

The active list 4320 reflects, based on the user interjecting thecharacter string DD into the respective bin content items, that the userhas picked up (placed in her shopping cart) milk, bread, orange juice,strawberries, and coffee. She has tagged each of these items with thecharacters DD. The active list 4320 also reflects that the user hasadded chips to the active list, so as to remind her to pick up chips atanother store at some later time, for example. In this embodiment of theinvention, the user inserts the trig modify@grocerylist to the activelist 4320. As shown in FIG. 43, the user then sends the active list 4320to the server 200.

The server inputs the text message from the user. In processing the textmessage, the server reads the trig modify@grocerylist and knows that thecommand “modify” dictates that the server should perform bin modifyprocessing. Further, the trig indicates that such processing, of thecontent of the text message, should be applied to the user's grocerylistbin.

In performing the bin modify processing, the server compares the contentof the input text message vis-à-vis the current content of theparticular bin—the bin grocery list, in this example. The server thenapplies a rule or rules to modify the bin content based on suchcomparison. For example, the rule might be to delete (from thegrocerylist bin) any bin content item containing the letters “DD”. Therule may also specify to add any new content, i.e. content notpreviously in the bin grocerylist. The server then generates themodified bin content “ice cream, lemonade, chips” and populates thegrocerylist bin with such content. Accordingly, the user has efficientlyand easily retrieved content from her grocerylist bin, tagged the bincontent items to reflect that she has successfully secured such items,and sent the tagged list back to the server so that her grocerylist bincould be updated to reflect her activity. Accordingly, she can at somelater time send a further send@grocerylist request to the server to bereminded of the items that she had previously not picked up, i.e. theitems “ice cream, lemonade, chips”.

In this example, the server may also generate a “mastergrocerylist” binthat is associated with the grocerylist bin. The mastergrocerylist binmaintains all bin content items that the user has previously added tothe grocerylist bin. That is, in this example, the user tagging bincontent items with “DD” and sending such tagged list to the server onlyresults in the deletion of such tagged items from the bin grocerylist,and does not result in deletion from the bin mastergrocerylist. Themastergrocerylist bin might be helpful in reminding the user of all theitems she previously needed. Illustratively, in the shopping listexample, a person will routinely want the same items in their weeklytrip to the grocery store. Accordingly, the “grocerylist” and the“mastergrocerylist” processing described above allows the user toeffectively check off items as they pick up those items in a particulartrip to the supermarket, while retaining a master list of items forlater trips to the supermarket—for example, in two weeks when the userneeds to go grocery shopping again. It is appreciated that the user maydirectly add or pull from the mastergrocerylist bin or the grocerylistbin using techniques as described herein.

The “grocerylist” and the “mastergrocerylist” example illustratesmanipulation of what might be characterized as a “recurring” list.Accordingly, the invention may provide for a master list that ismaintained in a particular bin while also populating a further bin (withsimilar content) such that the further bin might be used for aparticular event. For example, the event might be the user's weeklyshopping trip to the grocery store. Such functionality may of course beused in a wide variety of environments. For example, the functionalityis applicable to any task list of the user, and in particular a tasklist of the user that is recurring

In general, it is of course appreciated that functionality describedherein in the context of a particular environment e.g. a partyenvironment or a task performing situation, may be applied to otherenvironments as desired.

In this example, the user typed the trig modify@grocerylist into theactive list 4320, and sent such trig along with the content to theserver. In other embodiments, such specialized trig might not beutilized. For example, the user might simply utilize a standard addtrig, i.e., add@grocerylist. In using such trig, the server would beprovided with suitable rules such that the server would recognize (basedon the content of the text message from the user) that “bin modifyprocessing” is to be invoked

Instead of deleting previously existing bin content items based on theletters DD, it is appreciated that other characters might instead beutilized and/or other approaches by which the user may tag particularbin content items. In general, it is appreciated that other rules may beutilized to: segregate the particular bin content items that the userhas essentially tagged, e.g. with the letters DD; the bin content itemsthat the user has not tagged; as well as any new content that will beprocessed by the server to generate new bin content items. For example,such rules might involve the degree of change of a particular bincontent item. Slight variation, such as the addition of a letter or twoin a bin content item, reflects that the user has indeed tagged such bincontent item. This is in contrast to a bin content item that isunchanged, reflecting that the user has not tagged the bin content item.Further, new content will of course be fully different (i.e. in that itsimply was not present in the list 4310, and thus understood by theserver to constitute new content.

FIG. 43 illustrates that there may be processing interplay between twobins. In general, in the invention, the server may perform interrelatedprocessing between two or more bins. One example of this is integratingthe content of a general trip bin with the content of a specialized bin,such as a ski trip bin.

The server may also provide interplay between user only accessible binsand public accessible bins, or limited access bins, e.g., access that islimited to friends of the user. For example, the server may provide afriends “general trip” bin that is accessible by friends of the user.The general trip bin includes a listing of items to be taken on a trip,e.g. such that the user does not forget his toothbrush. However, thefriends general trip bin that is accessible by the user's friends isalso associated with a general trip bin that is only accessible by theuser, i.e. a private general trip bin. That is, the user's friendscannot view, pull, or add content to such private general trip. Afeature may be provided by which a bin content item added to the friendsgeneral trip bin is also output to the private general trip bin of theuser (based on certain criteria being satisfied). For example, thecriteria might be that enough people (friends) indicate they like theparticular bin content item in the friends general trip bin. Respectivefriends interface with the friends general trip bin in some manner toreflect that they like the particular bin content item. As a result, theparticular bin content item is essentially deemed worthy of addition tothe “private general trip bin” of the user. It is appreciated that eachfriend that has access to the friends general trip bin may have her ownprivate general trip bin. Further, the particular criteria that willtrigger a bin content item to be output (from the friends general tripbin to a private general trip bin) may vary. For example, one personmight indicate that a bin content item is to be transferred to herprivate general trip bin upon 2 friends approving, e.g. liking, theparticular bin content item. However, another person might indicate thatfive friends must like a particular bin content item before the serveris triggered to transfer that bin content item into the person's privategeneral trip bin. In other words, each friend may respectively indicatehow popular the particular bin content item must be prior to transfer,i.e. adding that particular bin content item into his or her privategeneral trip bin.

In general, it is appreciated that functionality may be provided to movecontent from one bin to another bin. In the example above, the contentwas moved from a quasi-public bin, i.e. a bin shared by friends, to aprivate bin based on particular criteria. Functionality may also beprovided to move content between bins that are only accessible by theuser, i.e. private bins. Such movement of content between the user'sbins may be based on criteria, e.g. rules, as desired. For example,substantial access to a particular bin might trigger the content of thatbin to be transferred to a further bin of the user. On the other hand,lack of access to a particular bin might trigger a transfer of contentbetween bins.

In a further example, content of a particular bin might transfer to asecond bin after some period of time. For example, in a social situationthe user might be meeting a number of new people—and the user wants toremember their names. As the user learns a new person's name, the userdiscreetly texts a message to her “name” bin such as “add@name Amanda”Accordingly, at some point during the party or after the party, the usercan pull all of the names of the persons she met, i.e., the user sends amessage to the server “send@name”. The server may provide functionalityto transfer, after a 24-hour period for example, content from the “name”bin to a further bin such as “long-termname” bin. This automatedtransfer would be helpful to some users so as to segregate names ofpersons recently introduced, versus persons introduced to them some timeago. For example, in a party situation, the user may be most interestedin the persons they are currently meeting at the party versus namesadded to his or her “name” bin a week ago. Such automated transfer ofcontent between lists may of course be utilized in a wide variety ofenvironments, as desired. Two or more lists may utilize suchfunctionality, as desired. Instead of such 24-hour period, the usermight send a text message to the server with a suitable trig at the endof the party or other event. Such trig would trigger the above transfer,instead of the 24-hour period.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the addition ofcontent (by the user) to a particular bin of the user may result in suchcontent being added to the specified user's bin, as well as pushed outto bins of another user or users. For example, a soccer coach may sendmessages to her “great_plays_bin” in the server so as to document thegreat plays in a soccer game. In some predetermined manner, that contentmight both be stored in the user's great_plays_bin, as well as output tothe other parents on the team. For example, the content might be outputto a great_plays_bin of another parent or parents, or simply pushed outvia text message to the parents.

As described above, a particular user's bin might be populated withcontent (as a result of add messages being sent to such bin, forexample) in conjunction with other users' respective bins beingpopulated with the same content in some automated fashion. It isappreciated that various rules and/or criteria may be invoked so as todictate whether the server should or should not populate other user'sbins with content. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention,the server might interface with a social network to which the users allbelong. The degree of association of the users on the social network maybe utilized to dictate the manner in which bins of respective users arepopulated with content. For example, such processing might interfacewith FACEBOOK and utilize the “degree of separation” processing utilizedtherein, i.e. so as to determine which bins are populated with whichcontent, amongst multiple users.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the systems andmethods of the invention may utilize GPS (global positioning system)technology to perform what is herein characterized as “pingprocessing”—in that the server pings the user upon the user coming intoproximity with an address that is associated with one of the user'sbins. The server pinging the user may be in the form of the serversending the user a text message, as described below. Technology thattracks the position of a user device is known, such as technologydescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,890,576 to Microsoft Corporation issuedFeb. 15, 2011, which is incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety.

In this embodiment, a bin of the user is associated with a particularphysical location. For example, the user has a bin named “tasks”. Usinga suitable computer interface, the user associates that bin, e.g. tasks,with a particular physical address, e.g. 123 Coach Road, Coachtown, Va.22222. The association could be on a temporary basis or on a morepermanent basis, changeable by the user. In this illustrative scenario,it might be the situation that a coordinator (the user) working withcoach's team routinely needs to pick up equipment at the coach's office,but keeps forgetting. The needed equipment might vary from week to week.Throughout the week, the user adds content to her “tasks” bin, such as“add@tasks remember to pick up jersey for new player this week”. Theuser adds such content using an add message as described herein, or viaweb session, for example. In the ping processing of the invention,illustratively, the user drives home from work, and upon the user cominginto a predetermined proximity of the coach's address, e.g., one-mile,the server automatically sends a text message to the user with thecontents of her “tasks” bin. As a result, the user hears the incomingtext message and remembers she needed to pick up items at the coach'soffice. The user can then drive to the coach's office and review hertext message to recall all the items that she needed to pick up.

It is of course appreciated that the predetermined proximity, i.e., thenumber of miles, may be varied based on user preference and theparticular situation in which the ping processing is applied. It isfurther appreciated that such ping processing may be utilized in avariety of real life environments and situations. Further, theprocessing as described above may be utilized with other parameters,other than proximity to a location. For example, another parameter mightbe the length of time that the user has been driving or a distance. Inone embodiment, ping processing for a particular bin might be initiatedand set up by the user pressing a suitable ping processing button 2117,as shown in FIG. 21. Such would initiate processing such that the serverinterfaces with the user to set up the parameters of the pingprocessing.

The invention may utilize what is herein characterized as “stickyparameter” processing. With sticky parameter processing, attributes of atrig or other incoming parameter are retained by server 200 in order toprocess subsequent communications from the user. The user may beprovided with the capability to activate or deactivate sticky parameterprocessing. For example, the user might text to the server “add@movieiron man” In a subsequent text message to the server, e.g., a subsequentadd message, the user might text “add@ need to see red riding hoodmovie”. Such subsequent text does not include a bin in which to placethe content “need to see red riding hood movie”. However, using stickyparameter processing, the server looks back to the prior text messagereceived from the user in which the bin “movie” was specified. Since thecurrent text message did not indicate a bin, the server applies thatpreviously specified bin, i.e. the processing “sticks” to that binpreviously specified.

In similar manner, the sticky parameter processing may be applied tocommands in a trig. For example, the user might further text “@movieneed to see red riding hood movie”. Accordingly, this text does notinclude a command but does include a bin “movie”—to dictate which binthe server should place the content. Using sticky parameter processing,the server looks back to the most prior command input from the user andapplies such command to the new text message. In this example, theserver looks back and sees that the prior text message was an “add”message. Accordingly, the server applies that command to the newmessage. The utilization of sticky parameter processing is not limitedto trigs, but rather may also be applied to other parameters inprocessing of the invention.

FIG. 44 is a diagram showing a user interface in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention. For example, the user interface might beaccessed via webpage. The user interface shows the user's movie bincontents disposed in a content window 4420. The contents are similar toFIG. 21 described above. However, FIG. 44 reflects a simpler bin contentpresentation vis-à-vis FIG. 21. In this example, date and timeinformation regarding when a particular bin content item was received bythe server is not retained. This provides simpler processing. However,in other embodiments such date and time information might be retained,and presented alongside each bin content item or otherwise associatedwith the particular bin content item. In this example, respective bincontent items are demarcated by semicolons.

The content window 4420 is an active and editable window. This meansthat the user can actively change text presented in the content window4420. The user can add a new bin content item and or remove bin contentitems. The processing of the server may be programmed to work off thecontent of the bin as such content is presented. Accordingly, in theexample of FIG. 44, if the user edits the movie bin contents to removeall the semicolons, then the server would view the movie bin as onlycontaining one bin content item. In other words, the server may work offcontent in a bin that has been edited (via webpage by the user) in thesame manner as if the content was populated into the bin via textmessages. In this embodiment, the server is essentially blind as to howthe content was deposited in the bin, but simply processes the contentas presented.

The invention may also provide capability by which a user might select aparticular bin content item (in a first bin) and copy and paste thatcontent into a second bin. In one manner, this might be performed usingstandard copy and paste functionality commonly available. In accord withthe invention, functionality may be provided by which the user selectsthe particular bin content item in some manner (for example in a websession with the server 200) and a “transfer bin list” is presented tothe user. The transfer bin list provides a listing of all bins of theuser. By clicking on a particular bin, the particular bin content itemis transferred to that further bin. An option may be presented to theuser as to whether the user wishes to maintain the content in theoriginal bin—in conjunction with transfer of the content to the furtherbin. In this manner, for example, the user might review the bin contentitems in a first bin and quickly and easily divvy out those bin contentitems to other bins. In particular, such functionality may be helpful indivvying out content in the user's catchall bin.

FIG. 4 as described above shows different types of messages and examplesof those messages. For example, messages sent from the user to theserver include an add message, a send message, a clear bin message, anew bin message, as well as a delete bin message. The type of message iscommonly defined by the particular trig that the message contains. Inembodiments of the invention, the server may provide functionality suchthat a user may combine trigs in a particular text message to theserver. The server identifies that the text message includes two (ormore) trigs and performs responsive processing based thereon. Forexample, the user might send to the server the text message “send@moviesend@book”. In response, the server would pull the content from both theuser's movie bin and the user's book bin. The report message back to theuser, from the server, might aggregate the respective content, segregatethe content in some manner, alphabetize the content, or in some othermanner manipulate, prioritize or organize the content for presentment tothe user in the report message. Alternatively, the server might respondto the single text message from the user (with the two trigs) with tworespective text messages—one text message reporting the contents of theuser's movie bin and another text message reporting the contents of theuser's book bin. Other trigs, including commands and bin labels, may becombined in a single text message. For example, the user might send theserver the text message “add@movie iron man send@movie”. In response,the server would both add the new content to the movie bin, as well asgenerate a report message that sends the user all content in her moviebin, i.e. including the new content as well as prior content.

In accordance with embodiments of the invention, the content frommultiple bins may be aggregated and other ways. For example, the at-itsystem server 200 may provide processing to respond to a trig“1008@game”. In this example, this trig tells the server to pull contentfrom the user's game bin and specifically for the game on October 8.Accordingly, the responsive e-mail sent from the server back to the user(Joe) might read “October 8 Raptor game time is 9:45 AM at Lee Park. Weare white. Bring a drink. Joe brings snacks.” The server may aggregatecontent from different bins including both generic content to advise allthe players on the team versus player specific content to advise justcertain players on the team. Accordingly, in this example, the bin“game” is accessible by each player on the team. In this example, aresponsive text message from the server to another user in response tothe same trig “1008@game” might yield the same response, except suchresponse would not indicate that “Joe brings snacks”, i.e. since thephone number of the requesting text message was not Joe's phone number.In this example, a first bin might contain generic game information forall players, and a second bin contain specialized information regardingsnacks for respective players. In addition to the server aggregating thecontent from both respective bins, the server might also aggregate suchinformation with boiler plate clauses. For example, in this situation,the phrase “Raptor game time is” may be a boiler plate clause that ispulled from another bin or some other database. In general, a trig maybe crafted such that people can remember the trig. In this example, aplayer likely can remember that to get game information, she crafts andsends a text to include the four digit date of the game (for whichinformation is requested), the @ sign, and the word “game”.

In summary of aspects, the systems and methods of the invention providean application service provider, and in particular, hosting, managing,developing, and maintaining applications, software, and web sites, inthe fields of personal productivity, wireless communication, mobileinformation access, and remote data management.

The systems and methods of the invention further providetelecommunication services, namely, wireless digital messaging services;providing telecommunications access services for capturing, collecting,aggregating, organizing, searching, indexing, storing, synchronizing,recognizing, accessing, retrieving, managing, sharing, transmitting anddisplaying information and data, including text, audio, video, binary,still images, graphics, digital content and multimedia files via mobilephones and mobile communication devices. In general, it is appreciatedthat the processes described above as manipulating video, image, and/oraudio, for example, may also be applied to information and data,including text, audio, video, binary, still images, graphics, digitalcontent and multimedia files, for example.

The systems and methods of the invention further provide for thecollection, compilation, systematization, and organization ofinformation into computer databases; computerized database management;advertising and interactive marketing services.

The systems and methods of the invention further provide for computersoftware for use in capturing, collecting, aggregating, organizing,searching, indexing, storing, synchronizing, recognizing, accessing,retrieving, managing, sharing, transmitting and displaying informationand data, including text, audio, video, binary, still images, graphics,digital content and multimedia files.

FIG. 45 is a diagram showing a further example of transfer of contentbetween bins, in this case a server percolation-bin (perc-bin) and auser percolation bin (perc-bin). Accordingly, the processing of FIG. 45and related FIG. 46 and FIG. 47 are characterized herein as“percolation” processing. In percolation processing, items added to auser perc-bin are compared with content in an “associated” serverperc-bin. Based on the comparing performed by the server, the attributesof the server perc-bin are adjusted. Further, the content of each userperc-bin that is associated with the particular server perc-bin may alsobe adjusted, either in real time or in some batch periodic manner. Asused herein, the term “real-time” means that a sequence of processing isinitiated and continued so as to provide the particular result, suchthat the particular result is achieved momentarily, i.e. within secondsor other short period of time. Accordingly, a server perc-bin containscontent and related attributes that are evolved based on interfacingwith a plurality (e.g. a small group, thousand, or millions) of userperc-bins. Relatedly, a user perc-bin is characterized by (1) a user binthat the user “associates” with a particular server perc-bin (and as aresult such user bin becomes a user perc-bin. Such user perc-bin may beopted into percolation for the particular bin, i.e. meaning that theuser perc-bin is not only associated, but also interfaces with theserver perc-bin—so as to percolate. That is, for a particular userperc-bin, a user may turn percolation “on” or “off” as desired. Detailsare described further below with reference to FIGS. 46-47.

In the example below, for purposes of illustration, the percolationprocessing is described in the context of a “skitrip” bin. However, itis of course appreciated that the processing may be applied to a bin ofany nature, content, or name. In general, it is of course appreciatedthat processing described herein, in the context of a particular nature,content, or name bin, may be applied to other bins as desired.

FIG. 45 shows a server perc-bin skitrip 4510 and a user perc-bin skitrip4520. As shown, such bins may be disposed in the bin database 270 in theserver 200. In percolation processing, a user adds content to and pullscontent from to her user perc-bin skitrip 4520 in the same manner as shewould add/pull content with a standard bin, such “standard bin” beingthat as shown in FIG. 1, for example. However, with a perc-bin, aparticular sequence of processing is initiated upon the user addingcontent. In addition, the contents in a user perc-bin may be organizedin a particular manner. The content in the user perc-bin 4520 might beorganized based on order number (as described below), segregated basedon content added by the user vis-à-vis the content input from the serverperc-bin 4510, or organized in some other manner.

As shown in FIG. 45, the content in the user perc-bin 4520 is organizedbased on order number. That is, in this embodiment, as content is addedto the user perc-bin 4520, each item in such content is associated withan order number. The order number (disposed in an order field 4522) andthe item (disposed in an item field 4524) constitute a record 4521. Inthis example, the order number of each record is based on the perk countof each item in the server perc-bin 4510 (as described below).Accordingly, regardless of whether the particular item was directlyinput via an add message from the user or input from the server perc-bin4510 (percolated in), the items in the user perc-bin 4520 are orderedbased on perk count in the server perc-bin 4510. In the situation thatan item added by the user is not added into the server perc-bin 4510 (asdescribed below), then such item may be presented to the user along withsuitable indicia reflecting such non-inclusion in the server perc-bin4510. That is, for example, presented to the user via text message (addmessage) or via web interface.

As shown in FIG. 45, in the server perc-bin 4510, each item is alsodisposed in a respective record 4511. Each record 4511 includes an ordernumber (disposed in an order field 4512), an item (disposed in an itemfield 4514), and a perk count (disposed in a count field 4516). The userperc-bin 4520 (along with various other users' perc-bins) are associatedwith the server perc-bin 4510. It is appreciated that such associatedbins are by design intended to retain the same kind, or at leastsimilar, type content. As the user adds content to her own perc-bin4520, the particular item added is compared with other items addedpreviously to the server perc-bin 4510. If an item is not already inserver perc-bin 4510, then that item is added to the server perc-bin4510. If an item is indeed already in the server perc-bin 4510, thenthat item receives an additional perk count. The core aspect in suchprocessing is that a user only sees a small portion of items that are inthe server perc-bin 4510. The particular number of items seen iscontrolled by the user set “percolation add threshold number” (PATN).Items (in the server perc-bin 4510) whose order number rises above thethreshold PATN will be output to the “associated” user perc-bin 4520.For example, if the PATN is set at 20, then the user only sees the top20 items in the server perc-bin 4510. For example, with a PATN of 20,the user would not see the item “trailmix” since its order number is 21.As shown in the server perc-bin 4510, the PATN 4518 is set at 20. Asdescribed below, the PATN will vary based on the user setting.Illustratively, the user may think that trailmix is a good item toremember when going on a ski trip—and send a text message (to her bincollection in the server 200) “add@skitrip trailmix”. As noted above andshown in FIG. 45, the item “trailmix” is indeed already in the serverperc-bin 4510, but is not seen in the user perc-bin 4520, since the userPATN is set at 20, and the order number of trailmix is 21. Indeed, asshown in FIG. 45, the trail mix item has received 138 perk counts versusthe 140 perk counts for handwarmer. The add message of the user,“add@skitrip trailmix”, will result in a further perc-count added to“Trailmix”. Thus, the perc-count of trailmix will go from 138 to 139. Asa particular item gets more perc-counts, relative to other items, thatitem is pushed up in the perc-list. Accordingly, if the user had set herPATN count at 25, then the item “trailmix” would have been populatedinto the user perc-bin 4520. Relatedly, it is appreciated thatnormalization processing may be performed in percolation processing.Such normalization processing would equate variations of the same item,such as “trail mix” vis-à-vis “trailmix”.

FIG. 45 also shows a graphical user interface (GUI) 4530, which may bepresented to the user via web interface. As shown, the GUI 4530 allowsthe user to turn percolation “on” or “off”; to adjust the PATN; and toadjust the percolation removal threshold number (PRTN). The PRTNcontrols when an item is removed from the user perc-bin 4520. That is,once the order number of a particular item falls below, i.e. is lessthan, the PRTN—then such item is removed from the user perc-bin 4520.Thus, the PRTN essentially allows the user to specify that she onlywants to see (in her user perc-bin 4520) the top 45 items as ordered inthe server perc-bin 4510. One processing caveat is that the serverprocessing may afford that any item added by a user will not be deletedfrom the user's perc-bin 4520 due to percolation processing—i.e. theserver may attach suitable attributes to each item so as to designatewhether such item was added by the user to her own bin; oralternatively, added from the server perc-bin 4510 by percolationprocessing.

The server may dictate that the PATN is always less than or equal to thePRTN. Otherwise, the addition of an item (to a user perc-bin 4520) basedon the PATN vis-à-vis the removal of an item (from the user perc-bin4520) based on the PRTN—would be in conflict with each other. Ingeneral, a user may be provided the ability to delete any item viaediting her bin. Upon deletion of an item, the server may be programmedto remember such deletion, so as not to add that particular item backinto the user perc-bin 4520. In this manner, a user may “override” thepercolation processing. It is appreciated that other functionality maybe provided to override the automated percolation processing.

It is appreciated that the percolation processing is not limited to theparticular file architecture shown in FIG. 45. For example, theparticular format of the record 4511 may be varied. Indeed, in lieu of arecord format, the server perc-bin 4510 may be constituted by anarchitecture of attributes and associations so as to provide thefunctionality of the percolation processing described herein. In generalas described herein, functionality may use a “less than” approach and/ora “more than” approach. Accordingly, for example, in FIG. 45 a high perkcount may result in a high order number, such that the items with thehighest order number are percolated, i.e. populated, over to anassociated, opted in user perc-bin. Indeed, in this particular example,the perk count may constitute the order number.

FIG. 46 is a flowchart showing further details of percolation processingin accordance with one embodiment of the invention. The process startsin step 4610 and passes to step 4620. In step 4620, the serverinterfaces with the user to create a user perc-bin 4520 that is“associated” with a server perc-bin 4510. Alternatively, the user mayinterface with the server to associate one of her existing bins with theserver perc-bin 4510. For example, on her own, the user may have alreadycreated and populated a bin dedicated to ski trip items. Once the userhas associated her perc-bin with the server perc-bin 4510, thenpercolation processing may occur.

Step 4630 represents that at some point in time the server inputs a newadd message from the user “add@skitrip trailmix, sunglasses”. Then, instep 4640, the server determines if the user is currently opted intopercolation for her skitrip bin. If no, then the process passes to step4642 and percolation processing for the particular add message stops. Ifyes, then the process passes to step 4652. As described herein,percolation processing is “two-way” in that content is both pushed andpulled from the user perc-bin 4520 vis-à-vis the server perc-bin 4510.In the example of FIG. 45, the user turns percolation on or off, i.e.,turns both push and pull off. However, such options may be bifurcatedsuch that the user opts to push content to the server perc-bin 4510 butnot to pull content, or alternatively, the user opts to pull contentfrom the server perc-bin 4510 but not push content. In summary, the usermay be provided the ability to turn percolation on or off for bothpushing content to the server perc-bin 4510 and pulling content from theserver perc-bin 4510, as such pushing and pulling are described furtherbelow.

In step 4652, the server parses out each item in the content of the textmessage. Such parsing may rely on commas, spaces, and/or a suitablealgorithm to parse out discrete items in the content. For example, awaiting algorithm might be utilized to analyze the words “trail mix” toaccess that such character string should be read together to constitutean item, as opposed to interpreting such character string as “trail” and“mix”. Further, the server may utilize a matching or comparisonalgorithm to suitable databases.

Then, in step 4654, the server places each parsed item into a suitablequeue for processing. Then, in step 4656, the server determines andaccesses the server perc-bin, for example server perc-bin 4510, that isassociated with the user perc-bin. Then in step 4660, the serverretrieves the first item in the queue. In step 40 670, the servercompares the retrieved item to determine if it is already in the serverperc-bin 4510. Normalization processing may be utilized such that slightmisspellings or other variations are taken into account. If no in step4670, then the process passes to step 4672. In step 4672, the serveradds the item to the server perc-bin 4510. The server also assigned aperk count of 12 such item. The process then passes to step 4676 inwhich the server determines if there is another item in queue toprocess. If yes, then the process returns to step 4670, in processingcontinues as described above. On the other hand, if yes in step 4670,i.e., the retrieved item is already in the server perc-bin 4510, theprocess passes to step 4674. In step 4674, the server adds a furtherperk count (4516) to that item and refreshes the “order number” (4512)based on the perk count (4516). The process then passes to the step4676.

With further reference to step 4676, if the server determines there isindeed not another item in queue to process, then the process passes tostep 4680. In step 4680, the server performs perc-bin distributionprocessing, as described below with reference to FIG. 47.

After step 4680 of FIG. 46, the process passes to step 4699. In step4699, the percolation processing waits for a further text message.

With further reference to step 4672, when adding an item to the serverperc-bin 4510, the server might compare the item to a database of itemsto determine if the character sequence is acceptable to add. Forexample, objectionable terms may not be added. However, relatedly, it isappreciated that objectionable terms likely would not be introduced intoa sufficient number of user perc-bins such that such objectionable termwould percolate up to a sufficient degree so as to be pushed out fromthe server perc-bin 4510 to user perc-bins 4520. Accordingly, the systemmay inherently limit the introduction of objectionable terms. In oneembodiment, it is appreciated that the server may interface with a humanuser so as to ascertain whether a questionable term should be added intothe server perk and 4510.

In similar vein, it is appreciated that if a user perc-bin is in syncwith a popular interpretation of the server perc-bin (i.e. what mostpeople see the particular server perc-bin as being about), then itemsadded to that user's perc-bin 4520 will have greater impact onpercolation in the server perc-bin 4510. In other words, an item willonly be percolated up in the server perc-bin 4510 if a substantialnumber of people “add” the same item. Accordingly, an outlier item suchas “beach fan” (added to the user perc-bin 4520) would likely never bepercolated up in the server perc-bin 4510 because few others would addsuch item into their respective user perc-bin 4520.

FIG. 47 is a flowchart showing details of the “perc-bin distributionprocessing” step 90 of FIG. 46, in accordance with one embodiment of theinvention.

The process starts in step 4680, and passes to step 4682. In step 4682,the server observes that the daily update time for the server perc-bin4510 is attained for a group of user perc-bins 4520 that are associatedwith such server perc-bin 4510 (i.e., update time=current time). Thatis, a particular server perc-bin might be associated with 5,000 userperc-bins 4520, for example. Step 4682 reflects that those 5000 userperc-bins 4520 might be broken out into 10 groups of 500 user perc-bins4520, for e no I don't but that something to be example. In order todistribute out processing load, the server may respectively perform theprocessing of FIG. 46 on each of such groups throughout the day.However, the particular timing of percolation distribution processingmay be controlled in other manner. For example, percolation distributionprocessing might be performed based on prompt from the user, in realtime, or in some other periodic rolling manner, for example.

Relatedly, percolation processing may be directed to a particular groupof people such that percolation processing for that particular group issegregated vis-à-vis percolation processing for other persons. In oneembodiment, a single user may interface with the server so as to createa server perc-bin 4520 that is associated with that user, as well as ofcourse associated with a user perc-bin 4520 of that user. That singleuser might then invite friends to join her percolation bin 4520. Suchmay be desirable in that the segregated server perc-bin 40 520 wouldthen evolve through percolation with friends of the particular user. Theinvolvement of such a segregated server perc-bin 4510 might be assistedvia a social networking mechanism, such as FACEBOOK.

Accordingly, in step 4682 of FIG. 47, the server is dictated to providepercolation distribution processing for a particular group of userperc-bins 4520. After step 4682, the process passes to step 4684. Instep 4684, the server retrieves the first user perc-bin in the group tobe updated, and tags that first user perc-bin for processing as the“current user perc-bin”. Then, the process passes to step 4687. In step46 a seven, the server determines if the current user perc-bin is “optedin”. That is, has the user set her user preferences so that her perc-binwill be updated based on the content in the server perc-bin. In otherwords, has the user set her preferences such that an item in the serverperc-bin 4510 (which has attained the user set PATN) will be percolated,i.e. pushed, to her user perc-bin 4520. If no, i.e. the user has notopted in, then the processing passes to step 4686. In step 4686, theserver retrieves the next user perc-bin in the group to be updated.Processing then again passes to step 4687—with that next bin tagged forprocessing as the “current user perc-bin”.

On the other hand, if yes in step 4687, then the process passes to step4690. In step 4690, the server retrieves the PATN retrieves the PATN forthe particular user perc-bin 4520. Then, in step 4692, the serverdetermines if percolation of the server perc-bin 4510 has pushed any newperk items so as to attain the user's set threshold (PATN). If no, theprocess passes to step 4694. In other words, this means that since thelast percolation distribution, no item in the server perc-bin 4510 hasattained sufficient popularity so as to be pushed out to the particularuser perc-bin 4520. Accordingly, in step 4694, no items are added to,i.e. populated into, the current user perc-bin 4520. After step 4694,the process passes to step 4696.

On the other hand, if yes in step 4692, then the process passes to step4695. In step 4695, the server adds any item that has attained the PATNinto the current user perc-bin 4520.

Generally speaking, the processing of FIG. 46 generally is directed tothe pushing of items from the user perc-bin 4520 to the server perc-bin4510. On the other hand, the processing of FIG. 47 generally is directedto the pulling of items from the server perc-bin 45102 the user perc-bin4520. It is of course appreciated that the characterization of “pulling”and “pushing” is a matter of interpretation, for purposes ofdescription, depending on a perspective from the user perc-bin 4520 orthe server perc-bin 4510.

After step 4695, the process passes to step 4696. Step 4696, relates topotential deletion of items in the server perc-bin 4520. That is, basedon the perk count (4516) in the server perc-bin 4510, the server deletesany items in the user perc-bin 4520 that have fallen below the PRTN.However, as described above, such deletion may be overridden bypreferences set by the user.

Then, in step 4676, the server determines if the group includes anotheruser perc-bin 4520. If yes, then the process passes to step 4686, inprocessing continues as described above. On the other hand, if no, thenprocessing passes to step 4680—in which the process returns to FIG. 46and step 4699.

Accordingly, as described above, the content in the user bin 4520 (whichis specifically a user perc-bin 4520) is manipulated by percolationprocessing. However, it is of course understood that such content may beretrieved by the user in the same manner as a standard bin—such as byweb interface or text message, for example. When the user accesses thebin 4520 via the web, the server may present the items in the bin insimple linear form (e.g. skis, poles, boots, gloves, . . . ), forexample. With user interface with the server 200 via text message, auser might send a text message “get@skitrip” to the server—so the serverwill send the content to the user in the form of a “report message”. Insuch report message, the server may include items with order numberassociated with each item, as illustrated in FIG. 45.

As described above, items in the server perc-bin 4510 are percolated upbased on other users adding the same item into their user perc-bin 4520.Other functionality may be provided to percolate items. For example, thevoting functionality may be provided such that users may review items inthe server perc-bin 4510 and vote on such items. Percolation processingmight implement a quid pro quo approach such that a user would berequired to contribute to the server perc-bin 4510, in some manner, soas to gain the benefits of interaction with the server perc-bin, suchbenefits including tapping into the collective thought and insight of agroup of people. For example, a user might be required to opt intopercolation processing and/or vote on items in the server perc-bin 451.The processing may provide a user with the ability to search a pluralityof server perc-bins 4510—so if the user was going on a ski trip, shecould then search the server perc-bins 4510 for a bin that is related to“ski”. Accordingly, in some embodiments, a user may be provided theability to search a server perc-bin that she is not opted into orotherwise associated with, i.e. the server perc-bins might be public.

In one embodiment, percolation processing may be utilized in theenvironment of polling. Specifically, percolation processing in oneaspect is directed to the aggregation of ideas by users. As a result,percolation processing might be utilized in the environment of politicalanalysis, for the gathering of public opinion, for example. In general,it is appreciated that various processing described herein may be highlyuseful in a polling situation.

Hereinafter, further aspects of the invention relating to conversion oftext will be described. FIGS. 48 and 49 illustrate processing performedby the server in which specific text (received in a text message fromthe user) is converted by the server.

FIG. 48 shows a “customized trig (CT) text map” GUI 4801 in accordancewith one embodiment of the invention. The GUI 4801 includes a CT textmap 4810. The CT text map 4810 includes a plurality of user created textmap items 4820. Each text map item 4820 includes a CT item 4822 and atext item 4824. With the text map feature of FIG. 48, once the text mapitem 4820 is set up, the server converts a CT item (received from auser) to a text item that the CT item corresponds to. Such conversion ofthe received item to a generated item is performed prior to the serverfurther processing the text message. Once the conversion is performed,the text message is processed as if that text was initially receivedfrom the user, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

Thus, for example, a user might send the server a text “1s handwarmers”. The server processes the text and recognizes “1s” as a CT item(as reflected in FIG. 48) and converts “1s” to “add@skitrip”. The serverthen processes the text as “add@skitrip hand warmers”—i.e. the serveradds the content “hand warmers” into the user's skitrip bin. As afurther example, the user might send the server the simple two charactertext message “2s”. The server recognizes such text as a CT item and (asreflected in FIG. 48) converts such text to “get@skitrip”. Accordingly,the user may set up their CT text map 4810 so that they merely need totext “2s” to pull content from her ski bin. The CT text map 4810provides the user substantial capability to craft customized trigs to bein harmony with the user's mental thought processes. In other words, theuser can craft trigs in such manner to make it easy to remember. A usermight craft a customized trig scheme in whatever manner most works forhim or her. FIG. 48 reflects a scheme in which the user remembers thatthe initial character in an add message is always “1”, and further, thatthe second character is always the first letter of the particular bin.The user may craft her bin collection so as to not use the same firstletter for multiple bins. In parallel manner, the user may craft hercustomized trigs such that the initial character in a send message isalways “2”. In this manner, a user can add and pull content from herbins in a highly efficient and quick manner. The methodology is quick inthat only two characters are required. The methodology is efficient inthat the customize trig is crafted by the user to be in harmony, i.e. insync, with the user's mental thought processes.

As a further example, the user might set up CT items as “s!” (4822) isconverted to add@skitrip (4824), as well as “s!!” (4822) is converted to“get@skitrip (4824). Such would afford quick entry by user, since theuser taps the particular primary key “s” to specify the particular bin,then ALT, the same key for add message, OR ALT same key again for thesend message (assuming that the user's phone has s and ! as the samephysical key). This memory scheme might be very intuitive to some users.As used herein, a “send message” may interchangeably be characterized asa “get message”, i.e. in that such message prompts the server to get orretrieve content and send that content back to the user in a reportmessage.

As shown in FIG. 48, to set up a text map item, the user may first clickthe add new item button 4830 to tell the server to generate a new textmap item 48204. Then, the user enters text (populates) both the CT item4822 and the text item 4824. Once both fields are populated, the usermay click the “accept” button 4840. The accept button 4840 may beinactive (lighter in color) until both the CT item field 4822 and thetext item field 4824 are populated in an acceptable manner. The servermay impose certain constraints on the items (4822, 4824). For example,the server might preclude a CT item 4822 that contains an “@”. Once theuser clicks the accept button 4840, the text map item 4820 is then setup for future use by the user. Specifically, upon the server observingthe CT item 4822 in a text message (or e-mail for example) the serverconverts that item to the corresponding text item 4824.

An option may be provided to the user to dictate that for the server torecognize a CT item 4822, that item must be a standalone characterstring—to avoid inadvertently generating a text item 4824 based on apart of a word. That is, the character string “1summer” in a textmessage would not trigger the generation of “add@skitrip” (see FIG. 48)since “1s” was not a standalone. Further, it is appreciated that theserver might implement hierarchical processing, such that certainprocessing would be performed first.

FIG. 49 shows a “customized trig (CT) command map” GUI 4901 inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention. The GUI 4901 includes aCT command map 4910. The CT command map 4901 includes a plurality ofuser created command map items 4920. Each command map item 4920 includesa CT item 4922 and a command item 4924. With the command map feature ofFIG. 49, once the command map item 4920 is set up, the server knows thatif it sees a particular CT item 4922 in a text message from the user,then the server will perform the particular command that that commanditem 4924 is mapped to. Thus, distinct from the processing of FIG. 48,the command map processing of FIG. 49 does not convert text input fromthe user, but rather recognizes the CT item 4922 and maps suchrecognized item to a particular command item.

Thus, if the user sends the text message to the server “skia handwarmers” to the server, the server will add the content “skia handwarmers” to the user's skitrip bin. Note the content remains unchanged.However, the server has recognized the character string “skia” asdictating the server to add the text into the user's “skitrip” bin. Inone embodiment, the CT item 4922 might be retained in the content addedto the bin, or alternatively, the CT item 4922 (here e.g. skia) might bestripped out from the content prior to adding into the user's bin.

Processing may be implemented to reconcile the processing of FIG. 48vis-à-vis FIG. 49. For example, the server might first look to see if atext message contains a CT item (4822, 4922) that maps to a command item4924. If no, then the server may then check if the CT item maps to atext item 4824. FIGS. 50 and 51 further illustrate how such hierarchicalprocessing may be performed. That is, for example, that an observedcommand map item 4920 takes precedence, i.e. priority, over an observedtext map item 4820.

As shown in FIG. 49, to set up a command map item, the user may firstclick the add new item button 4930 to tell the server to generate a newcommand map item 49204. Then, the user enters text (populates) both theCT item 4922 and the command item 4924. Once both fields are populated,the user may click the “accept” button 4940. The accept button 4940 maybe inactive (lighter in color) until both the CT item field 4922 and thecommand item field 4924 are populated in an acceptable manner. Theserver may impose certain constraints on the items (4922, 4924). Forexample, the server might preclude a CT item 4922 that contains an “@”.Once the user clicks the accept button 4940, the command map item 4920is then set up for future use by the user. Specifically, upon the serverobserving the CT item 4922 in a text message (or e-mail for example) theserver converts that item to the corresponding command item 4924.

An option may be provided to the user to dictate that for the server torecognize a CT item 4922, that item must be a standalone characterstring—to avoid inadvertently generating a text item 4924 based on apart of a word.

In contrast to the text item 4824, the command item 4924 is of aparticular structure. That is, in one embodiment, the command item 4924is required to be of the form of a standard trig (such as shown in FIG.4 above). Relatedly, the GUI 4901 may be provided with a “select commandoptions” menu 4952 and a “select your bin” menu 4954. The functionalityallows a user to scroll to a particular command, using the menu 4952,and then drag that command over to the command item field 4924. Insimilar manner, the user may bin menu 4954, and then drag that bin overto the command item field 4924. The server may add to the “@” inautomated manner once the “command” and “bin” are dragged and dropped.

Relatedly, and to explain further, the CT textmap 4801 of FIG. 48 is notso regimented as to the text item 4824. That is, while the user hasopted to populate the text items 4824 of FIG. 48 with “add” and “get”messages, for the most part, such is not required. The user may populatethe text item 4824 field (and the CT item field 4822) with whatevercontent the user desires. This is illustrated by the text item4824′—“add@beachtrip post 1-26-12 trip”. For example, once the text mapitem 4820 (containing the text item 4824′) is set up, the user mightsend a text message to the server “1b tent”. The server would thenconvert such to “add@beachtrip post 1-26-12 trip tent” (using the CTRtext map). The server then processes such text, an add message. Thisresults in the content “post 1-26-12 trip tent” being added into theuser's beachtrip bin. Thus, using the CT text map 4810, the user haseffectively set up her own personal tagging methodology—such that shecan pull content from her skitrip bin (either via text message (getmessage) or web interface, for example) and know which bin-content itemswere added after her 1-26-12 beach trip.

Conversion processing may include further features. A user's CT text map4810 of FIG. 48 may include different CT items 4822 that are mapped intothe same text item 4824. A user's CT command map 4910 may includedifferent CT items 4922 that are mapped into the same command item 4924.A user may include a CT item 4822 (that maps into a corresponding textitem 4824) and a CT item 4922 (that maps into a corresponding commanditem 4924) in the same text message. In such situation, the CT item 4822might be processed first, and then the CT item 4922. The server may keepa log of all conversion processing which may be accessible by the userfor review at some later time.

FIG. 50 is a flowchart showing further aspects of conversion processingrelated to the processing of FIGS. 48 and 49. The processing of FIG. 50shows conversion processing using both a text map and a command map.

The process of FIG. 50 starts in step 5000 and passes to step 5001. Instep five dozen one, the server inputs text, for example “skia gloves”in a text message from the user. Then, in step 5002, the server scansthe text to determine if the text contains a standard trig, such asadd@store. If yes, the process passes to step 5002-1, in which theserver processes the text based on a standard trig. If no, then theprocess passes to step 5003. In step 5003, the server scans the text todetermine if the text contains a trig (such as “a@s”) processable usingfuzzy logic. If yes, the process passes to step 5003—one in which thetext is processed using fuzzy logic. For example, a@s might be convertedto add@store, using fuzzy logic as described above. If no in step 5003,the process passes to step 5004. In step 5004, the server scans the textdetermine if the text contains a customize trig. In this processing, theserver compares each item of text (e.g. Discrete items as demarcated byspaces) with customized trig (CT) items in the database. The CT itemmight map into either the CT text map 4810 or the CT command map 4910.If there are no CT items, then the process passes to step 5008 in theserver places the content into the user's catchall bin.

If yes in step 5004, the process passes to step 5005, in which theserver tags the identified CT item to indicate whether that CT item isfrom the text map 4810 and/or the command map 4910. Note that toreconcile a conflict between the same CT item being in both the map 4810and the map 4910, the processing of FIG. 51 described below invokes andinherent hierarchy. After step 5005, the process passes to step 5100. Instep 5100, the server processes the CT item(s) as described below withreference to FIG. 51.

FIG. 51 is a flowchart showing further details of the “server processesCT items” step 5100 of FIG. 50, in accordance with one embodiment of theinvention

the processing of FIG. 51 starts in step 5100 and passes to step 5101.In step 5101, the server determines whether there was an identified CTitem tagged as from the user's text map 4810. If yes, then the processpasses to step 5102. The server accesses the user's text map, and mapsthe CT item 48222 the corresponding text item 4824. Then, in step 4103,in the text received from the user in the text message, the serverconverts the CT item 4822 to the text item 4824. Then, in step 5104, theserver determines if there is a further identified CT item tagged isfrom the user's text map 4010. If yes, then the process returns to step5102, in processing proceeds as described above. If no in step 5101, theprocess passes to step 5104. The server determines if there was also anidentified CT item 4922 tagged as from the user's command map 4910. Ifno, the process passes to step 5105. In step 5105, the processingreturns to step 5002 and FIG. 50 for further processing based on the nowmodified text.

With further reference to step 5101, if “no” in step 5101, then theprocess passes to step 5106. Also, if yes in step 5104, then the processpasses to step 5106. Step 5106 reflects that the text message didcontain an identified CT item 4922 tagged as from the user's command map4910. Accordingly, in step 5107, the server accesses the user's commandmap, and maps the CT item 4922 to the corresponding command item 4924.Then, in step 5108, in the text deceived from the user, the serverstrips out the CT item 4922, in one embodiment. That is, at this pointin the processing, the server has determined the particular processingto be applied to the user received text message based on the mapped to“command item.” Accordingly, the processing does not retain the textwhich dictated such processing. Then, in step 5109, the server processesthe remaining text based on the command item identified, i.e., thecommand identified in step 5107. Functionality may be provided such thata particular CT item is mapped to multiple commands. The commands thatare mapped to may dictate various manipulation of content. Accordingly,after initial setup by the user, the user may map a single CT item to apotentially complex set of commands, which may be very helpful andefficient to the user.

As noted above, the processing of FIG. 51 includes an inherent hierarchyin that text map items trump command map items. Specifically, step 5101initiates processing of any text map items prior to the processing ofany command map items. It is appreciated that such hierarchy may bevaried as desired. For example, in more complex processing, the user maybe provided with a preference capability to indicate which customizetrig items will be processed prior to other CT items, regardless ofwhether such CT items are part of a text map item 4820 or a command mapitem 4920. For example, all the CT items might simply be presented tothe user in a list that the user can order based on their preferences.

It is appreciated that the command map as described above is not limitedto associating a single command to a CT item 4922. Rather, multiplecommands 4924 may be associated with a single CT item 4922. Thiscapability allows a user to invest time so as to construct more complexcommand functionality. Once constructed, the user may thus invoke suchcomplex command functionality with a single CT item 4922. For example,illustratively, more complex command functionality that might be invokedby a single CT item 4922 includes: “add&sort@store” (commands the serverto add the particular content to the “store” bin and to sort the contentin the “store” bin); “add&send@store” (commands the server to add theparticular BCI into the bin, as well as to send the content back to theuser in a report message); “send@all sort@all” (commands the server tosend all content in all of the user's bins, and to sort such content insome predetermined manner). As illustrated, the “&” character may beutilized to demarcate different commands in a trig. As otherwisedescribed herein, the particular format of the trig, as well as thecharacters used in the trig, may be varied as desired. Relatedly, theparticular processing triggered by a particular command may be varied asdesired. For example, a send message that requests the server to sendcontent of a bin to the user might be in the form of “get@movie” or inthe form of “send@movie”, or both. Accordingly, the particularcomposition of a trig and the processing that such trig effects may bebased on various parameters, such as what is easier to remember, what isintuitive to the user, what more closely correlates with the content ofa bin, and/or what more closely correlates with the processing beingeffected.

FIG. 52 is a user interface for a group-send bin in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention. Manipulation of a bin by multiple personsand the output of content from a bin to multiple persons are describedabove. For example, FIG. 23 and the related description illustrate thatprocessing may provide for different friends to receive content from aparticular bin. FIG. 52 shows a user interface (GUI) with which a user(in this example User-1) may control processing of what may becharacterized as a “group-send” bin 5200. A group-send bin 5200 is aspecialized bin. User-1 sends content to a group-send bin 5200 using astandard trig, such as “add@friends1”. User-1 may have named a bin (inhis bin collection) “friends1” to reflect a group of friends of theuser. In processing for a group-send bin, any content that is added tothe bin is routed out to all recipients associated with that bin.Accordingly, if User-1 sends a text message to the server “add@friends1Meet at 9 pm”, the server will first add the content “Meet at 9 PM” intothe User-1's “friends1” bin. Then, the server retrieves the processingparticulars (see architecture of FIG. 10) for the bin “friends1”. Inthis example, the processing particulars dictate that the bin “friends1”is a group-send bin. Accordingly, the server sends the content (that wasreceived from User-1) out to each of the recipients specified in thecontact record 5220 (described below). As a result, the group-send binprovides a further mechanism by which User-1 may send a single textmessage to a particular bin, and have the content included in arespective text message (or other communication) sent on to apredetermined list of friends. It is appreciated that such content maybe immediately deleted from the group-send bin of User-1, or retained inthe group-send bin, as desired. For example, a toggle may be providedbetween retaining or not retaining. In retaining content, it isappreciated that in one embodiment, all content in the group-send binwould be sent out to the recipients, and not only content just received.However, in some scenarios, this may be desired.

The group-send processing may be provided to process responsivecommunications sent back from a recipient of a group-send. In such ascenario, the group-send recipient (e.g. in this example JoAnn, who hasreceived the group-send text message from the server) responds with atext message back to the server. The server inputs such responsive textmessage from JoAnne and determines that the only point of contact thatthe server has had with JoAnn is via the previously sent text message toJoAnne (sent in the group-send). As a result, the server adds any text(in the text message from JoAnn) into User-1's bin “friends1”, and sendsthat content out to the other three recipients, as well as User-1 whoinitiated the group-send. Accordingly, a person (here JoAnn) other thanUser-1 may indeed add content into a bin of User-1, which triggersprocessing associated with that bin of User-1. Further communicationamongst User-1 and the recipients listed in the contact record 5220 maybe processed in similar manner.

One nuance of such processing is a situation in which the group-sendrecipient (e.g. JoAnn) is indeed also a user of the At-It system.Accordingly, the system need distinguish between JoAnn sending theserver a text message in response to a group-send vis-à-vis JoAnnsending the server an “add message” without a trig (such that the serverwould add content into JoAnn's catchall bin in JoAnn's bin collection).In one embodiment, to distinguish such two communications, the servermay require that JoAnn also include the trig “add@friends1”. Else, theserver will simply treat the text message from JoAnn as an “addmessage”, and place content therein into the catchall bin in JoAnn's bincollection. In the situation where JoAnn also has a bin (in her bincollection) called “friends1” then further rules may be implemented todistinguish where the content of a particular text message should beplaced. In one embodiment, the server may simply process the messagefrom JoAnne by placing the content in the text message into both theuser “group-send recipient's” (e.g. JoAnn's) bin “friends1” as well asthe “friends1” bin of User-1. Indeed, it may be highly desirable toplace the content into both bins so that JoAnn may then have record ofsuch communication, i.e. in that she will not have access to the“add@friends1” bin of User-1.

In a yet further embodiment, User-1 may (in his bin collection) have twobins each called “friends1”. However one of such bins is a group-sendbin, while another of such bins is a standard bin. Thus, a text messagesent from User-1 with the trig “add@friends1” is added into both bins ofUser-1. However such content added into the group-send bin isimmediately output to the listed recipients in the contact record 5220and deleted from the group-send bin. On the other hand, the contentadded to the standard bin of User-1 is retained. Such processing furtherillustrates a scenario in which content may be added to two or more binsof a user (here user-1) based on a particular trig.

As described above, if the server receives a communication (e.g. textmessage) from a group-send recipient (in this example GSR-1), then thefact that GSR-1 was previously sent the group-send message may besufficient information upon which the server places content from GSR-1into the “add@friends1” bin of User-1. However, the server may beprogrammed to require a particular trig, such as the “add@friends1” trigbe received from GSR-1, even if the responsive recipient of a group-send(GSR-1) is not a user. Based on the contact information (e.g. phonenumber) that the group-send message was sent out to vis-à-vis thecontact information (e.g. phone number) that the text message wasreceived in from, the server could then check that such responsiverecipient (GSR-1) was previously sent a group-send message. And also,that the communication received “back in” from that responsive recipient(GSR-1) included the very same trig that was sent out to the responsiverecipient (GSR-1). In this manner, the processing of the server couldachieve a threshold of certainty—upon which the server would add contentinto User-1's “friends1” bin (in the User-1's bin collection). Asdescribed above, such addition of the content into the User-1's binwould result in a communication containing the content (received fromGSR-1) being sent to the other recipients of the group-send bin as wellas User-1.

As described above, FIG. 52 shows a GUI 5201—with which the userinterfaces to change processing attributes associated with hisgroup-send bin 5200. The GUI 5201 may be provided via a web interfaceand accessed via a suitable link presented to the user. The GUI 5201includes a contact record 5220. The contact record 5220 includes alisting of contact information of recipients of the group-send message.In this example, the formal names of the recipients are not provided inthe contact record 5220, but merely the actual contact information—textmessage number, e-mail address, telephone number, for example. Thecontact record 5220 includes a contact button 5222 that allows the userto specify the particular channel upon which the communication will besent out from the server. Accordingly, the server takes the content inthe group-send bin 5200 and generates a communication (contain thecontent) for forwarding via the specified channel with the specifiedcontact information, e.g. phone number. In the situation where thespecified channel is a telephone call, the content in the group-send bin5200 may be converted to a suitable audio file, such as a WAV file forexample. The contact button 5222 might be a menu type button, via whichthe user clicking the button 5222 results in a menu presented to theuser including the items e-mail, text, phone. The user may then choosethe particular medication channel desired for the particular recipient.The contact record 5220 also includes a delete button 5224, by which auser may delete a particular recipient from the contact record 5220.Also, the GUI 5201 includes an add recipient button 5230, which the usermay click to add a further recipient into the contact record 5220.Further, the GUI 5201 may include a change name button 5210 by which thename of the particular group-send bin may be changed. The GUI 5201 mayinclude other indicia such as to convey the name of the particulargroup-send bin, such as “Group-send Bin: Friends1” and the processingprovided by the group-send bin, for example.

FIG. 53 is a flowchart showing group-send processing in accordance withone embodiment of the invention. As shown, the process starts in step5300 in which a text message is input from the user, in this exampleUser-1. For example, using the illustration above, the text messagemight be “add@friends1 Meet at 9 pm?” received from User-1. By sendingthis text message to the server, User-1 has initiated processing usinghis group-send bin (add@friends1) by which the content (Meet at 9 pm?)included in the text message will be forwarded out to each of therecipients listed in the contact record 5220 that is associated with thegroup-send bin 5200. Accordingly, in step 5301, the server adds thecontent to the User-1's bin “friends1”. Then, in step 53 or two, theserver pulls the processing particulars that are associated with suchbin. Then, in step 5303, the server performs processing based on theprocessing particulars of the bin. Specifically, the processingparticulars specify that the bin and is a group-send bin. Then, in step53 or four, the server retrieves the contact information for all therecipients. Such contact information may be disposed in the contactrecord 5220 that is also disposed in the processing particularsassociated with the bin. Then, the process passes to step 5305.

In step 5305, the server sends the content “Meet at 9 pm?” To each ofthe recipients based on the respective contact information in thecontact record 5220. Then the process passes to step five heuristics, inwhich the processing ends.

Various other functionality may be provided in conjunction withgroup-send processing. For example, in lieu of the contact informationshown in GUI 5201 in FIG. 52, suitable icons might be presented, such asa picture of each respective recipient. In general, it is appreciatedthat contact information, bins, and/or other items may be presentedusing an icon or in some other manner presented symbolically. Ingroup-send processing, as described above, the content added to agroup-send bin is output to other persons. The creation of a group-sendbin may be initiated via a link being presented to the user. In order toensure that the user is aware of the processing resulting from an addmessage being sent to a group-send bin (i.e. that such contents will beoutput to recipients), particular indicia might be imposed. For example,the server may impose that a particular suffix be associated with thename of a group-send bin. Thus, the server may mandate that thegroup-send been described above be called “friends1.gs”, as opposed tothe name without suffix “friends 1”. In the situation that a user addscontent to a group-send bin, or attempts to add content to a group-sendbin, without such suffix, the server may send a “server control message”requesting confirmation that the user intended to add content to thegroup-send bin, i.e. prior to the server outputting the content to thelisted recipients.

FIG. 54 is a block diagram showing what may be characterized as “captureassist” processing in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.The indicia “capture assist” reflects that in such processing a moduleon the “front-end” captures information and outputs the information tothe At-It server 200. Accordingly, FIG. 54 illustrates an architecturein which the At-It server 200 supports what might be characterized as afront-end information capture system. Hand-in-hand, the At-It server 200provides what might be characterized as a back and data organizationsystem.

FIG. 54 shows a capture assist system 5400 that is in communication withthe At-It server 200. The capture assist system 5400 includes aninformation capture GUI 5410 and a processing module 5420. The GUI 5410might be presented to a user via a monitor screen disposed in the car.The module 5420 might be in the form of a loaded app, disposed on atangibly embodied computer readable medium, which is implemented by aprocessing system in the car, so as to provide the functionalitydescribed herein. The module 5420 may be wired to the GUI 5410 so as toprovide communication between the two components. The module 5420 isprovided with suitable wireless capability such that the module may sendand receive data from the server 200. For example, text messages may besent from the module 5420 to the server 200 using technology commonlyutilized in smartphones. As described below, FIG. 55 is a flowchartshowing processing that is performed in conjunction with the userinterfacing with the GUI 5201.

In capture assist processing, the system 5400 captures information inresponse to the user interfacing with the system 5400, to trigger thecapture of information. The information that is captured (by sensors andconveyed to the module 5420) might include the particular song on theradio, the GPS position of the car, audio information such as the userspeaking to the system 5400, the level of gas in the car, the altitudeof the car, interior or exterior climatic conditions, passengers in thecar as sensed by seat weight sensors, the gross weight of the car, timeinformation, proximity to other items such as other cars, and/or otherinformation.

The GUI 5410 includes a song on radio button 5412, a GPS position button5414, and a voice button 5416. The GUI 5410 also includes a stow At-Itbutton 5418, which the user presses to trigger the collection of thespecified information. The GUI 5410 might be in the form of atouchscreen, for example, located on the dashboard of the car. In oneembodiment, the processing may include the user touching one or more ofthe buttons 5412, 5414, 5416 so as to convey to the module 5420 whattype of information the user wishes to collect. Then, the user pressesthe stow button 5418 to convey to the module 5422 to initiate thecapture of the type of information that the user has specified.Accordingly, the user might touch each of the buttons 5412, 5414, 5416,and then touch the stow button 5418. In this manner, the user wouldcapture the particular song on the radio, the GPS position of the car atthat given time, and be able to record a voice message to furtherdocument the particular situation. As described below, the manner inwhich the information is collected varies based on the nature of theinformation. The module 5420 may be programmed such that if any of thebuttons 5412, 5414, 5416 are pressed within 5 seconds, for example, ofeach other, then content resulting from a press of those buttons will begrouped into the same text message sent to the server 200, i.e. sent toa bin in the user's bin collection in the server 200. In one embodiment,the single text message might include a single trig reflecting thecollective content, or multiple respective trigs reflecting each type ofcontent. Such multiple respective trigs may be provided to result in thecontent being added into a respective bin that corresponds to each ofthe trigs, i.e. upon the text message being sent to the server 200 andprocessed by the server 200.

For song, car radios commonly input and contain data reflecting theartist and song name. This data (such as “Adele rolling in the deep”)might be presented to the user via a known interface on the user'sdashboard in her car. The module 5420 takes this information andgenerates a text message (to the At-It server 200) in which theinformation (e.g. “Adele rolling in the deep”) constitutes the“content.” Further, the module 5420 inserts a trig into the text messagesuch as “add@song-car”. Such might result in the generation of a textmessage “add@song-car Adele rolling in the deep”, for example. Themodule 5420 then outputs such text message to the server 200. The server200 then processes the text message using standard trig processing.Accordingly, the content Adele rolling in the deep” is added into theuser's bin collection and specifically in the bin “song-car”.

For GPS position, upon the user touching the GPS button 5414, the module5420 may retrieve GPS information from a GPS device mounted in thevehicle. The module 5420 takes such GPS information and generates a textmessage (to the At-It server) in which the information constitutes thecontent, e.g. such as “25-35-45” being illustrative GPS coordinatesgenerated by a GPS system. The module also inserts a trig into the textmessage such as “add@gps-car”. The text message (e.g. “25-35-45add@gps-car) is then output to the server 200 for standard trigprocessing.

For voice, the content of the text message that is generated by themodule 5420 is based on the user speaking into a microphone in the car,after touching the voice button 5416. The microphone transmits the audioinformation into the module 5420. The audio information is thenconverted to text format, for inclusion as content into a text messagegenerated by the module 5420. Accordingly, the content of such textmessage generated by the module 5420 might be “add@voice-car remembermilk at store”. The module 5420 then sends the text message to theserver 204 for standard trig processing. That is, the content “remembermilk at store” would be added into the user's bin named “voice-car”. Atime limit might be imposed, such as 20 seconds for the user to speak.

As noted above, FIG. 55 is a flowchart showing processing that isperformed in conjunction with the user interfacing with the captureassist system 5400. The processing starts in step 5501 in which theprocessing module 5420 (in the car) senses user pressed “song on radio”button 5412. Then, in step 5502, the module 5420 interfaces with radioprocessing unit to retrieve particulars of the song, e.g. “Adele rollingin the deep”. Then, in step 5503, the module 5420 generates a textmessage addressed to the server 200 (e.g. 703 111 1111 (see FIG. 1)) andincludes the content “Adele rolling in the deep” in the text message.Then, in step 5504, module 5420 retrieves the trig associated with the“song on radio” button 5412, such as “add@song-car” and adds that triginto the generated text message. Then, in step 5505, the text messagewith the text “Adele rolling in the deep add@song-car” (i.e. content andtrig) is sent from the module 5420 to the server 200 (for processing bythe server 200). Then, in step 5507 processing by the module 5420 ends.

In accord with embodiments of the capture assist processing describedabove, the user does not actually input the trig, nor does the user evensee the trig. Rather, the trig is input (by the module 5420) into thegenerated text message in an automated fashion. For example, the userhears a song on the radio that she likes, navigates to the GUI 5410 (ifshe is not already there), presses the “song on radio” button 5412, andpresses the stow button 5418. No further interface is needed by theuser. Based on such interface of the user, the above processing isperformed such that the particulars of the song, as a result of theprocessing, are routed to and stored in the user's bin “add@songcar”.

Relatedly, in one aspect, even though the trig generated by theprocessing module 5420 may be programmed into the module 5420, the usermay still control placement of the content into her bin collection. Suchpreference might be set by web interface to the server 200. For example,the user may be provided the ability to set a preference by whichplacement of content resulting from an “add message” is prioritizedamongst the user's bins. In other words, if an “add message” from a userincludes two trigs dictating placement into respective bins, then suchpriority may dictate that one bin takes priority over another bin. As aresult, the content would only be placed into the bin having the highestpriority. This is of course in contrast to an embodiment in which thecontent is placed into all the bins that a respective trig maps into.Relatedly and illustratively, the user might press the voice button5416, speak into the system “add@store remember milk at store”, andpress the stow button 5418. With the processing described above, thisaction by the user results in a text message sent from the module 54202the server 200 that includes the text “add@voice-car add@store remembermilk at store”. Thus, the user has spoken the trig “add@store”, and suchtrig is included in the text, along with the module generated trig“add@voice-car”. Assuming the user has set her preference such that addmessages to her “store” bin takes priority over her “voice-car”bin, thecontent is indeed placed in her “store” bin. In this manner, the user isprovided a layer of manipulation (which she can control) over theprocessing of the module 5420 (with which she cannot control thegeneration of the particular trig). In accord with embodiments describedherein, the user may manipulate placement of add message content inother manners. For example, the user may utilize the conversionprocessing of FIGS. 48-51 to manipulate placement of add messagecontent.

Related to the above functionality of capture assist, it is appreciatedthat a car may simply be provided with a text messaging application.Such application inputs a text message (in digital format) into the carvia wireless transmission from a third party, converts the text to anaudio file, and outputs to the user in audio form (such that the usercan hear her text message). On the other hand, on the send side, thetext messaging application inputs the user's voice, converts the voiceto digital format, and sends such digital format out in the form of atext message to the third-party. With such text messaging application,the user may send content to the At-It server 200 and pull content fromthe At-It server 200 using “standard trig processing” as such asdescribed above. However, the capture assist processing as describedabove provides varied benefits, which may be desired by the user.

As described herein, processing of the invention is described in theenvironment of an “car”. However, the invention is not of course limitedto such environment. The invention may be implemented in any environmentsuch as any vehicle, a recreational vehicle, the home, a standaloneportable device, a smartphone, and/or in any other environment. Forexample, the capture assist system 5400 of FIG. 54 might simply be inthe form of a standalone device that provides the functionalitydescribed above. In the processing of FIGS. 54 and 55 described above,in one embodiment the server 200 is not local to the module 5420, i.e.is not physically disposed in the car. However, as described herein,processing and functionality provided by the server 200 may be performedlocally, such as on a user's computer or smartphone. Relatedly, it isappreciated that the server 200 as described above with relation toFIGS. 5455 might indeed be disposed locally, i.e. in the physical caralong with the module 5420 and the GUI 5410. In such local application,in order to interface with the locally maintained bin collection of theuser, a suitable interface would be provided. For example, and interfacesuch as that shown in FIG. 20 may be provided on the dashboard of theuser's car. In a further variance, it is in general appreciated that thebin collection of a user might be disposed in multiple locations andsynced in some manner. Accordingly, a bin collection might be disposedin the user's car as well as at a physical server location anywhere inthe world. The sync of the two bin collections might be performed inreal-time or in some periodic manner, using a suitable data exchangemethodology.

FIG. 56 is a diagram showing what may be characterized as “controltexting” processing in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.The indicia “control texting” reflects that in such processing a textmessage 5602 (including trig and content) is sent from the user to aspecialized At-It server 5620. Based on the text message, in thisexample in the form of an “add message,” the specialized At-It server5620 generates a communication which is output to a controller (5626,5624) of some nature. In this example, the controller is a thermometer(5642, 5644) in a house 5640. Accordingly, FIG. 56 illustrates anarchitecture in which an At-It server 5620 provides front-end processingwhich supports a back end control system. Accordingly, At-It processingmay be utilized to provide API functionality, as illustrated in FIG. 56.

The server 5620 as characterized as special in that its sole function isto input text messages from the user for the purpose of controlling thetemperature in the user's house. Thus, in similar nature to the server200 of FIGS. 1 and 9, the server 5620 includes a bin collection. In thisembodiment, the bin collection includes only two bins—a first floor bin5624 and a second floor bin 5626. The server 562 also includes a controlmodule 5622. The server 5620 is associated with a text number, to whichthe user may send a text message. Accordingly, it is appreciated thatthe user may have multiple At-It server numbers. A first At-It servernumber may be used by the user to add and pull content from his or hergeneral bin collection (e.g. see FIG. 20) and a second At-It servernumber provided to the user and dedicated exclusively to the control ofa control device, e.g. a thermometer, in the user's house, for example.In the example of FIG. 56, the text message is “add it second-floor 66”.The server 5620 inputs that text message and based on the command “add)and the bin “second-floor”, the server 5620 places the content “66” intothe second-floor bin 5626. In this example, processing of the controlmodule 5622 is then initiated. Such process 5630 is shown in FIG. 56. Asshown in FIG. 56, the processing starts in step 5631 upon the module5622 observing content being added into the bin 5626, i.e., the contentbeing the temperature “66”. Then, in step 5632, the module 5622generates a communication based on the number “66”. In other words, thecontrol module 5622 knows that if it sees a number in the bin 5626, thenthe control module 5622 generates a communication 5604 based on thatobserved number. Such communication 5604 is between the control module5622 and the particular thermometer (5642 or 5644) to which the controlmodule 5622 is sending the communication 5604. Accordingly, as is shownin FIG. 56, in step 5633, the module 5622 outputs a communication to thehouse temperature controller, e.g. a thermometer in the house. Theparticular protocol used in the communication between the control module5622 vis-à-vis the thermometer 5642 or the thermometer 5644 may bedetermined as desired. For example, for the communication 5604, thecontrol module 5622 may utilize existing phone lines in some manner soas to control the thermometer (5642, 5644), or in some other mannerinterface with each other. Relatedly, it is appreciated that the server5620 and/or the control module 5622 might indeed be disposed in the samephysical device as the thermometer (5642, 5644). The server 5620 mightbe disposed in the same physical device as the control module 5622 (asshown in FIG. 56) or a different physical device. In one embodiment, asshown in FIG. 56, the server 5620 and control module 5622 are disposedin a facility remote from the house 5640. Accordingly, the server 5620with control module 5622 might be hundreds of miles away from the house5640 which the server 5620/control module 5622 controls.

In one embodiment of the control texting processing, the control module5622 works off of the last content added into the particular bin (5626,5624). However, the control module 5622 may keep a history of contentand respectively added into the bins (5626, 5624). The control module5622 may also retain data regarding related parameters, such as theactual observed temperature at the thermometer. However, such processingwould involve feedback from the thermometer (5626, 5624) to the controlmodule 5622, which may or may not be desired. In accordance with furtheraspects of the processing of FIG. 56, various further features asdescribed herein may be incorporated into such processing. For example,the trig in the text message 5602 might be shortened by relying on fuzzylogic processing and/or conversion processing of FIGS. 48-51.

Various specialized bins and bin processing are discussed above. FIG. 57shows further specialized bin processing in accordance with embodiments.Specifically, FIG. 57 is a block diagram showing a specialized binprocessing portion 5700, in accordance with one embodiment of theinvention. For example, the specialized bin processing portion 5700might be disposed in the bin database 270 and/or the bin collection 280of FIG. 9. As described below, the processing portion 5700 contains aplurality of bins that perform specialized processing. Accordingly, uponthe user sending a communication, such as a text message, to one of thespecialized bins 5701, that particular bin performs particularprocessing, as respectively described below. The specialized processingmay be controlled by data, e.g. programming code, disposed in theprocessing particulars associated with that particular bin (see forexample the architecture of FIG. 10).

One of the specialized bins 5710 is characterized herein as the“destination” bin 5710 that performs “destination processing.”Destination processing is initiated by the user sending a text messageto the server 200 (in which the specialized bins 5701 are disposed) suchas “add@destination Starbucks”. Based on the bin “destination” theserver 200 adds the content “Starbucks” into the destination bin 5710.In response to the added content, the destination bin 5710 performspredetermined processing. Specifically, the server communicates with theuser's phone so as to secure the GPS location of the user's phone.Further, the server recognizes the name of the business “Starbucks” andinterfaces with a suitable database to secure the closest location of aStarbucks vis-à-vis the user's phone. The server may then interface witha further database to generate directions from the GPS location of theuser's phone to the identified nearest location of a Starbucks. Forexample, the server might interface with a third-party such as MAPQUESTor GOOGLE MAPS. The server then sends the directions back to the user ina text message. Accordingly, the user has secured directions to thenearest Starbucks by highly leveraging her mental abilities and theprocessing of the server 200. Specifically, the user remembered that thetrig to pull a destination from the server is simply “add@destination”and that she need include the name of the requested destination. Theuser sends the simple text message to the server 200, and (depending onprocessing speed) the user is almost immediately, or at leastmomentarily, provided with the directions she is in need of.

It is appreciated that a secondary trig might be included in the initialtext message from the user so as to control the particular format of thedirections. Alternatively, the particular form of the directions mightbe a preference set by the user via web interface. In one variation, theuser might set her preference such that only the address of anyrequested destination would be provided, and not directions. Thecommunication with directions may include other information, such asdistance or time information. Further, the responsive information fromthe server, e.g. the directions, need not be in the form of a textmessage. Alternatively, the directions might be output in the form of aphone call that the user could listen to as she is driving, or ane-mail. In a further embodiment, the server might output direction datato the user's mapping system, such as the user's TOMTOM. With referenceto FIG. 5 above, it is appreciated that the user may trigger the sendingof a “bin list request” that, in one embodiment, includes both a listingof all the bins that are accessible by the user, as well as basicexplanation of the processing associated with each respective bin.

In this example, the text message “add@destination Starbucks” initiatedthe processing described above. It is appreciated that in this case, andin general, the particular form of the trig might be varied to be moreintuitive to the user. Accordingly, the trig might instead be“pull@destination Starbucks”, for example.

With destination processing, the server may determine the position ofthe user's phone, such as a smartphone or other device, in differentways. As described above, one approach is that the server communicateswith the user's phone so as to secure the GPS location of the user'sphone. This interface between the server 200 and the user device may betransparent to the user, i.e., the user would not be aware of suchcommunication. In another embodiment, the user actually sends herlocation in the initial text message to the server. For example, theuser might determine her GPS location from her smartphone, and includethat GPS location in the initial text message to the server. Thus, theinitial text message to the server might read “add@destination Starbucksmy GPS 123-123-555”. This approach would allow destination processing tobe performed with only the initial text message from the user and theresponsive text message from the server 200 back to the user. That is,no secondary communications would be needed (between the server 200 andthe user's phone) so as to determine the location of the user/user'sphone. In a further embodiment, a small app (as described further below)might be provided on the user's phone. For example, the app may observethe trig add@destination and, as a result, append GPS coordinates to thecontent of the user's text message. Such observing might utilizeprocessing akin to spell check processing. That is, it is known to checkthe text in an e-mail, for correct spelling, prior to sending thate-mail out. The server may check any outgoing text messages for neededaction, such as checking an outgoing text message to the server 200 forthe trig add@destination, in which case the server would append thecurrent GPS location of the phone. Other related processing is describedbelow with reference to the GPS app 6020. It is appreciated that theinvention is not limited to utilization of GPS. Rather, other locationmethodologies may be utilized.

A further specialized bin is the “differential” bin 5720 that performsdifferential processing. With differential processing, the user sends anadd message to the server such as “add@differential current location”.Upon receipt of such text message, the server knows to add the currentlocation of the user into the differential bin. A Nuance in suchprocessing is that the content, which the user has included in the textmessage—“current location”, triggers the server to not simply input suchtext “current location” into the user's differential bin. Rather, suchstring of characters “current location” triggers the server to indeedretrieve the user's current geographical location, and insert thatgeographical location into the user's differential bin along with timestamp information. At some later time, when the user is at a differentgeographical location, the user may again text to the server“add@differential current location”. And again, the server the servercreates a bin content item (BCI) that includes the user's currentlocation and time stamp information. At some point, the user sends a“send” message to the server, such as “send@differential”. With thespecialized differential bin, the server does not simply output thegeographical/time stamp information, the server also generates andoutputs information regarding the difference between those BCIs. Suchdifferences might include how far apart the locations are and/or thetime difference in which the BCIs were created. It is appreciated thatdifferential processing may be used with various other parameters anddifferential quantities.

A further specialized bin is the “counting” bin 5730. The counting binperforms counting processing. Upon the user sending an “add” message toa counting bin, the counting bin does not simply generate a new bincontent item containing the content of that add message. Rather, thecounting bin attempts to match the content in the add message with thecontent already in the counting bin. If a match is found, then the countfor that particular item is incremented by one. For example, the usermight send a counting bin an add message “add@jog pond”. The user sendsthis add message upon the user completing a jog around her local pond.She has multiple jogs in her workout regime (e.g. her pond chart, herjog by the school, and her jog by the park). The content of her “jog”bin is “pond-14, school-7, Park-5”. Upon the user sending the above textmessage “add@jog pond”, the content of her jog bin is incremented to:“pond-15, school-7, Park-5”. Accordingly, the server has determined thatthe content in the user's add message matched one of the items in theuser's bin. As a result, the server incremented the count associatedwith that item.

As described herein, various normalization processing may be performedin conjunction with bin manipulation. For example, with a counting bin,upon a user sending an add message with a particular item in thecontent, the server may check if that item is already in the user's binusing normalization processing, i.e. “hotdog” is the same thing as “hotdog”. If the item is already in the bin, then counting processing may beinvoked to associate a count with the item. Alternatively, the servermay simply not update the content of the bin to reflect suchduplication.

In general, it is appreciated that the server 200 may possess furtherrules, in addition to the rules described herein, that dictate theplacement of content in any manner desired. Such rules may be hardcodedinto the programming, and not changeable by the user, or alternatively,the rules might be changed by the user based on their preference.

Various computer processing modules, i.e. computer processing portions,are discussed above. FIG. 58 shows further processing portions inaccordance with embodiments. Specifically, FIG. 58 is a block diagramshowing a specialized module portion 5800, in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention. For example, the specialized module portion5800 might be disposed in the At-It server processing portion 210, inthe server 200. As described below, the specialized module portion 5800contains a plurality of processing modules that perform specializedprocessing. The specialized processing may be performed by a computerprocessor using suitable instructions, e.g. programming code,respectively disposed in each of the processing modules 5801. Asdescribed below, the processing modules 5801 may be associated withparticular bins in the user's bin collection. Such association mightresult from the user interfacing with the server e.g. via web interface,so as to establish such association.

One of the specialized processing modules in the module portion 5800 ischaracterized herein as the “contact-stow” module 5810 that performs“contact-stow” processing. In contact-stow processing, an association isestablished between a particular bin in the user's bin collection andcontact information of a person other than the user. For example, thecell phone/text number for a friend, Sam, might be 703-123-1234. Theuser has a bin named “Sam notes”. The user may add and pull content fromher bin Sam notes using standard trig processing. Contact-stowprocessing provides the functionality for the user to be presented withcontent in her “Sam notes” bin upon the user accessing her contactinformation for Sam. More specifically, from a technical perspective,the user is presented with content in her “Sam notes” bin upon theserver receiving data indicating that the user has accessed theparticular contact information that is associated with such particularbin, i.e., or otherwise performs some trigger event in relation to theassociated contact information. Accordingly, in this example, thecontact-stow module 5810 contains an association between Sam's contactinformation (703-23-1234) vis-à-vis the bin “Sam notes”. Accordingly,with contact-stow processing, when the user (1) accesses Sam's contactinformation (703-723-1234), and (2) accesses a contact file thatcontains such contact information, or (3) performs some other triggerevent in relation to the contact information, for example—the user ispresented with the content of the bin “Sam notes”. Contact-stowprocessing may utilize an app on the user's smartphone, as describedbelow.

Contact-stow processing provides the benefit, for example, that upon theuser typing in a friend's number, or otherwise accessing a friend'scontact information, processing is initiated to output content to theuser—from a bin associated with that friend. This provides for the userto be reminded of all the items that she had previously added to suchassociated bin, i.e. items that the user wanted to discuss with theparticular friend that the user is contacting.

FIG. 59 is a diagram showing further aspects of contact-stow processing5810′ in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. As shown, thecontact-stow module 5810 which performs contact-stow processing isdisposed in the server 200. Also, the bin collection 280 is disposed inthe server 200. The server 200 interfaces with a smartphone 5910 via acommunication channel 5904. The smartphone 5910 includes an app 5912.

In further explanation of the functionality of contact-stow processing,such processing is initiated by observing, i.e. detecting, that the userhas accessed contact information. For example, upon the user accessingher contact information for Sam on the user's smartphone, thecontact-stow module 5810 is communicated data (from the app on theuser's smartphone, for example) indicating that such contact informationhas been accessed. The module 5810 then performs processing to determineif there are any bins (in the user's bin collection) associated withthat particular contact information. If yes, then the module 5810performs processing to send a text message (a report message) to theuser with all the content from such associated bin. Alternatively, themodule 5810 might communicate the contents of the associated bin in someother manner, such as a pop-up being generated and presented to the useron the user's smartphone. In one embodiment, the user may be requestedto provide confirmation that the user does indeed want the content (ofthe associated bin) to be sent to the user.

The particular manner in which the contact-stow module 5810 knows that aparticular contact (on the user's smartphone) has been accessed mayvary. In the example above, the app 5912 on the user's smartphone 5910communicated data to the module 5810 every time contact information isaccessed. In a different embodiment, the app 5912 on the user'ssmartphone monitors access to contact information (including the usertyping a phone number, for example). The app is provided with a list ofcontact information and the particular bin that each contact informationis associated with. Once the app 5912 identifies that a particularcontact information on the list has been accessed by the user, the appretrieves the bin name that is associated with that contact information(for example, if the app 5912 identifies that contact information for“Sam” has been accessed, the app will determine that such contactinformation is indeed on the list, and then retrieve the bin name “Samnotes” that is associated with the contact information for Sam). The app5912 then generates a communication (indicating that content of theassociated bin (Sam-notes) is to be output from the server 200 to theuser's smartphone 5910), and sends such communication to the module5810. The module 5810 (and/or server) receives such communication andcauses the content of the particular bin to be output to the user, forexample via text message from the server 200 to the smartphone 5910. Inone embodiment, such communication that is generated by the app (i.e.the communication indicating that content of the associated bin is to beoutput to the user) may indeed be in the form of a “send message”—suchas in the form of “send@Sam-notes”.

As described above, the app 5912 is provided with a list of contactinformation and the particular bin that each contact information isassociated with. This data containing (1) a list of contact files, and(2) the bin that is associated with each contact file, may be output tothe app 5912 from the contact-stow module 5810. Such output to the app5912 from the contact-stow module 5810 might occur in conjunction withthe user setting up her contact-stow options via web interface to theserver 200. In such interface, the user is presented with functionalityto associate contact information with a respective bin, so as to performthe contact-stow processing.

FIG. 59 also includes a process flow showing a yet further embodiment ofthe invention. The process starts in step 5920 in which the module 5810interfaces with the user to set up an association between the contactinformation and bin. In step 5921, the module outputs a list of contactinformation to the app 5912 on the user smartphone. In step 5922, theapp observes that the user has performed a trigger event “as to” acontact in the contact information list. Then, in step 5923, the appcommunicates with the module what contact information has been accessedby the user. In step 5924, the module determines the bin that isassociated with the contact information. Then, in step 5925, the modulesends a report message to the user with all the content from theassociated bin.

A further specialized processing module is the redaction module 5820.The redaction module 5820 performs redaction processing. In redactionprocessing, access to content in a bin (e.g. access to a bin-contentitem (BCI), access to a bin, or access to a bin collection, for example,is limited in some manner. For example, in one embodiment, multipleusers have access to a particular bin. As described herein and shown inFIG. 21, for example, the content in a bin may be comprised of bincontent items (BCI). In redaction processing, a user may have access todifferent BCIs vis-à-vis the access afforded to other users. Asdescribed above, a BCI may respectively correspond to a single textmessage coming into the server and the contents (of the text message)being added into the designated bin based on the bin label in the trig.To restrict access to a particular BCI, a user may use a specializedtrig. Such specialized trig with content might be in the form of“add-redact@skitrip shampoo”. Upon the user (here User-1, for example)sending such text message to the server, the server places the content(shampoo) into the skitrip bin consistent with standard trig processing.However, the “redact” indicia in the trig triggers redaction processingto be implicated. Specifically, the redaction module 5820 is invoked toimpose a security layer over such BCI. The security layer, as controlledby the redaction module 5820, allows access by the user who submittedthe content in an add message (here User-1) but does not allow access tothe particular BCI by other users who have access to the particular bin.Thus, for example, when the user (User-2) other than User-1 sends a“send message” to the server for the bin skitrip (i.e. User-2 isrequesting the server to send all content in the bin ski-trip), theserver will send User-2 all the other content, but will not send User-2the content that has been redacted by User-1. Accordingly, redactionprocessing relates to a situation in which multiple users have access toa particular single bin, but a user (User-1) wishes to add content tothat single bin, but does not want the other users to see that content.

As in the example above, the group is planning a ski trip and theygenerate a group bin so that everyone who is going on the ski trip cancontribute thoughts regarding things they need to take on the trip. Asabove, User-1 thinks to himself that he needs to take shampoo on the skitrip, but prefers that the other users (also having access to theskitrip bin) not see that particular item in the bin. Accordingly, theuser sends a text message to the server “add-redact@skitrip shampoo”. Asnoted above, once the text message is input into the server, the server200 knows to add the content to the user's skitrip bin. Also, the“redact” indicia in the text message dictates that the server 200invokes the redaction module 5820. From a processing perspective, Theredaction module 5820 associates attributes to the particular BCI. Thoseattributes include User-1's text number and dictate that only User-1have access to the particular BCI. Accordingly, when a “send message”comes in from a user that has access to such group bin (User-1), theredaction module 5820 is invoked to first determine whether there areany BCIs in the bin that have been “redacted.” If so, then the redactionmodule 5820 determines what text numbers are associated with suchredacted BCIs. If the text number of the user (user-1) requesting thecontent matches—then that BCI is sent out to the requesting user(User-1), likely along with other BCIs in the particular bin. However,if the numbers do not match, then that particular BCI will not be outputto the requesting user (User-2). Rather, all the other BCIs that theUser-2 does have access to will be output. Indeed, in this case User-2would have no knowledge of the redacted BCI. Access would of course berestricted for pulling content via “send message” using text messaging,accessing the bin via web access, or accessing the bin in some othermanner. Regardless of the particular communication channel used toaccess content of the bin, the redaction module 5820 is invoked torestrict such access. The data containing information regarding whichBCIs have restricted access, as well as what texting numbers areassociated with such redacted BCI, may be disposed in the processingparticulars associated with each respective bin.

In the redaction processing example above, the contact information of“text number” was illustratively used. However, any type of contactinformation might be utilized. Indeed, the contact informationassociated with the redacted BCI AND the contact information associatedwith the incoming request for the contents of the bin might both becompared with a contact information database. If both contactinformation mapped into the same person's contact file, then that personis provided access to the particular BCI.

In the example above, the indicia “redact” was included in the trig bythe user, so as to dictate that such is a redacted BCI. However, it isof course appreciated that other indicia might be utilized. Also, asecondary trig might be provided with the add message—so as to dictatethat such is a redacted BCI.

The processing of the redaction module 5820 is not limited to the userimposed restricted access to bin-content items described above. Theredaction module 5820 may control other types of user access includingother restrictions to access BCIs as well as access to bins and/or bincollections. For example, in the situation of shared bins, theprocessing particulars of a shared bin may contain the text numbers ofthose users who have access to such shared bin. Accordingly, uponreceiving a “send message” text message, the server 200 knows from thecommand “send” that the user has requested the server to pull contentfrom a particular bin. The server retrieves the processing particularsof that identified bin, and determines if the user has access to theparticular bin.

Accordingly, the bins that are not shared with other persons might becharacterized as private bins versus bins that are shared might becharacterized as public bins. A user's private bins vis-à-vis a user'spublic bins might be distinguishable by suitable indicia. For example,such indicia might be an icon of some nature that is associated with thebins.

In a further embodiment, the user specifies whether she wishes the BCIthat she is adding (to a bin) to be private or public. Specifically, shemay text “addprivate@skitrip shampoo” to add shampoo into a BCI (in thebin “skitrip”), which is not accessible by other persons having accessto the group bin in general. On the other hand, she may text“addpublic@skitrip shampoo” to add shampoo into a BCI (in the bin“skitrip”) which is accessible by others in the group.

Illustratively, FIG. 62 is a diagram showing a bin record 1031 of thebin collection data structure 1030, as shown in FIG. 10 and describedabove. The bin record 1031, includes the bin name, the content in thebin, as well as the processing particulars 1032. In this example, thebin “movie” is a restricted bin controlled by redaction processing.Accordingly, the processing particulars in the bin record 1031 includesdata which indicates that the bin is restricted. Also, the data containsthe text numbers of those users who are allowed access to the bin record1031.

In redaction processing, the server first determines whether theparticular bin has restricted access, i.e., whether the bin is subjectto redaction processing. If the bin is not subject to redactionprocessing, the content of the bin is retrieved and sent to the user perthe “send” message without invocation of the redaction module 5820. Onthe other hand, if the bin is indeed subject to redaction processing,then the redaction module 5820 compares the text number that the “send”message came in on (e.g. the phone number/text number of the requestinguser's smartphone) against the allowed text numbers, as reflected instep 5821 of the redaction processing flow 5820′ as shown in FIG. 62.That is, the “allowed text numbers”—meaning the text numbers that theredaction module 5820 has in memory as being allowed to access theparticular bin. If the requesting user's text number does not matchthose text numbers allowed, then the redaction module 5820 conveys suchdisposition to the server 200, and the server 200 sends a suitable textmessage to the user, such as “No bin exists or bin access isrestricted,” as reflected in step 5822 of FIG. 62. On the other hand, ifthe requesting user's text number does match those text numbers allowed,then the redaction module 5820 conveys such disposition to the server200, and the server proceeds with sending a report message with thecontents of the particular bin. In the situation of web access, theprocessing may provide that the user simply is not presented with anyBCIs or bins that the user does not have access to. Accordingly, accessto a BCI and/or access to a bin may be controlled. In similar manner,access to a bin collection may be controlled by associating allowed textnumbers to the processing particulars of each bin in that bincollection, and only allowing access to those bins if the requestinguser possesses an allowed text number.

It is appreciated that redaction processing may be performed in adynamic manner. For example, access to a particular bin as describedabove might be based on the occurrence of a particular event.Illustratively, the text number (and phone number) of the smartphone ofUser-1 is 7031231234. The server 200 includes a bin“advanced-techniques” which includes advanced processing details of theAt-It system. However, the processing of the server 200 includes thatonly users that have attained a certain complexity of use (of the At-Itsystem) are allowed access to the bin advanced-techniques. In otherwords, the bin advanced-techniques is restricted and controlled byredaction processing. As described above, the processing particulars ofthe bin advanced-techniques includes a list of user's text numbers thatare allowed access to the bin. Accordingly, when User-1 first signs onto the At-It system, he will not have access to the binadvanced-techniques. However, once the server 200 observers that User-1has attained a predetermined threshold complexity of use, then theserver 200 adds the text number of User-1 to the “allowed text numbers”associated with the bin advanced techniques. User-1 is thus providedaccess as described above. Such processing might be provided to avariety of types of bins, and in particular shared bins or publiclyavailable bins, e.g., public bins.

Accordingly, in this example, the particular event that occurred wasconstituted by the User-1 attaining a threshold complexity of use.However, it is appreciated that any of a wide variety of events mighttrigger allowing access to a particular bin by a particular user. Theserver 200 may be provided with a processing interface to observe theoccurrence of such event, and perform processing to include the user'srespective text number into the list of “allowed text numbers” for theparticular bin. In one embodiment, the user may be provided with a codethat the user submits to the server in some suitable manner. Uponreceiving the code, the server unlocks, i.e. allows access, to aparticular bin that corresponds to the submitted code.

A further specialized module is the “auto-populate” module 5830 thatperforms “auto-populate” processing. With auto-populate processing, theserver 200 is provided to populate a particular bin with particularcontent, upon observing that a predetermined event has occurred. Forexample, the bin collection of each user of the At-It system mayautomatically include a bin “user-milestones”. The server may observethe user's use of the system, as such use becomes more complex. Atparticular markers, the server populates the bin user-milestones toreflect advancement of the user to more complex use. For example, theserver might observe that the user has created her 10th bin. Thistriggers the server to add a BCI into the user's bin user-milestones,such as “Congratulations—you have now created your 10th bin.” Variousother events may trigger the population of bins, as desired. Forexample, the server might observe the GPS location of the user's phoneon a trip, and populate a particular bin with content to reflect theadvancement of the user on her trip, such as populating a particular binwith GPS and corresponding time information. In another example, theserver might populate a particular bin of the user with informationregarding when, and how long, that user is located at a particulargeographical location. Such processing may be used to monitor deliverytimes, or catering times, for example, i.e., when the server observed amatch between the GPS location of a user vis-à-vis the GPS location of amonitored list of geographical locations.

Relatedly, in a further embodiment, the user may set up preferencesand/or trigger events so that a particular action occurring, e.g. aparticular event occurring, triggers particular content to be added intoa designated bin in the user's bin collection. For example, the servermay provide functionality such that a BCI “with time information” isadded to the user's “workouts” bin every time the user goes to the gymto work out. Such processing may be performed by the server 200 bycomparing the user's current geographical location using GPS vis-à-visthe geographical location of the user's gym. Accordingly, thisfunctionality would allow the user to monitor the times that she goes tothe gym. That is, either via text message or web access, the user wouldaccess her “workouts” bin and retrieve the content in that bin. Each BCIof the bin might be in the form of “Workout on Mar. 5, 2012, arrived5:15 PM and left 6:37 PM”, for example. It is appreciated that suchfunctionality is applicable to a wide variety of situations.

Auto-populate processing may also leverage interface with devices thatare connected to the user smartphone (or other device), in oneembodiment. For example, the user smartphone might interface with ajogging monitoring device. In some periodic manner or as triggered bysome event, the jogging monitoring device outputs data regarding the jogto the smartphone. The smartphone generates a text message “add@jogstats” and includes the data regarding the jog into the text message ascontent. The smartphone then sends that text message to the server 200.Upon receipt, the server adds the content into the user's “jog stats”bin using standard trig processing. Accordingly, the user may thenretrieve the data regarding her jogs by accessing her bin “jog stats”.The particular periodicity or event may be varied as desired. Forexample, the user may effect a setting, i.e. a user preference, whichdictates that every time the user is at a particular geographical pointin her jog, the smartphone interfaces with the jogging monitoringdevice, and outputs an add message (with the data regarding the jog) tothe user's bin collection. Data relating to heart rate or bloodpressure, for example, might also be output.

A further module is the “bin-environment” module 5840 that performs“bin-environment” processing in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention. The bin-environment module is directed to control aparticular environment in which bin content is presented to the user.With a web interface, the bin-environment module may be invoked tocontrol the attributes of the webpage in which the bin content ispresented to the user. Illustratively, the bin-environment module maycontrol the attributes of the GUI 2101 of FIG. 21, which displays theuser's “movie bin” contents. For example, the webpage might be providedwith a particular backdrop, such as popular actors of the time, or apicture of a movie theater that is in close geographical proximity tothe user. In the situation of a webpage, generated by the server 200,showing “beach trip” items, for example, the bin-environment modulemight retrieve and present a backdrop of a beach. In the situation of awebpage showing “ski trip” items, the bin-environment module mightretrieve and present a backdrop of a ski mountain, for example. Ingeneral, the bin-environment module may associate a particular bin withcontent that is relevant to that bin. Thus, for example, a webpageshowing the content of the user's “skitrip” bin might also containpromotional content related to ski. For example, the webpage mightinclude content relating to ski gloves for purchase.

Accordingly, the bin-environment module provides for the ability toprovide different backdrops and other attributes for different webpagespresenting the content of respective different bins. The particularbackdrop corresponding with a particular bin may be controlled in anysuitable manner. For example, the user may be provided withfunctionality to choose which attributes for which bins. For example, asa backdrop for the webpage that presents the user's music bin content,the user might choose a picture of the user's favorite music artist.

A further module is the “auto” module 5850 that performs “autoprocessing” as described below. In accordance with one embodiment of theinvention, the auto module provides functionality such that uponparticular criteria being satisfied, the auto module generates andoutputs a predetermined text message, or other communication. Forexample, with a group bin, the auto module observes when a particularnumber, e.g. 5 (five), additional BCIs have been added into a particularbin, and outputs a text message to a user in a predetermined manner.Such processing might be programmed such that upon a BCI being added toa group bin by a specified user, that added content would result in theoutput of a text message to a further user. Accordingly, the auto moduleprovides functionality to allow a user to be alerted regarding somepredetermined disposition of a particular bin, or some action beingtaken as to that bin. For example, the auto module may alert a user upona certain number of BCIs being added to a bin, when a BCI is added as aresult of a text message from a particular user, or when a BCI of aparticular nature has been added to a particular bin, for example.

The auto module might also control placement of content, which wasreceived in an add text message, into a particular bin. For example,using GPS position, if the server 200 detects that a text message wassent from the user's work location, then the content is placed into oneof the user's bins tagged as the work associated. On the other hand, ifthe server detects that a text message was sent from the user's non-worklocation, then the content is placed into one of the user's bins taggedas non-work associated. For example, the user might have a “thoughts”work bin as well as a “thoughts” home bin. The user sends a text messageto the server “add@thoughts remember to organize files”. In decisioningto determine which “thoughts” bin the server places the content, theserver basis such decisioning off the GPS location of the user at thetime the user sent the text message. Instead of GPS location, suchdecisioning might be based on time of day, or a combination of GPSlocation and time of day.

Further, in embodiments, the auto module controls whether data ispresented in text form, icon form, or in some other form. For example,the bins as presented in the GUI of FIG. 22 might be presented in somesuitable icon form, rather than text form. For example the “movie” binmight be represented as a small square containing the letter “M”.

A further module is the metrics module 5860. The metrics module mayprovide various data to the user regarding his or her bin collectionbin. For example, the metrics module may retrieve attributes of theuser's bin collection so as to output information to the user regardingthe number of BCIs, which bin has the most BCIs, and/or data regardingwhen BCIs were added. The metrics might be based on the bins of a singleuser or multiple users. The data might relate to comparisons betweensimilar bins of respective users. For example, multiple users may have a“thoughts” bin which is intended to stow thoughts of a user as they passthrough his or her day. The metrics module might retrieve dataindicating the time of day that BCIs were added into each user's thoughtbin. As a result, the metrics module will provide information regardingwhich part of the day is the most thoughtful for users. In other words,at what time of the day did most users opt to stow his or her thoughtsinto his or her “thoughts” bin.

A further module is the “search” module 5870. The search module mayperform predetermined processing based on a trig that is received fromthe user. For example, if the user sends a text message to the server“search@movie vampire” the search module only searches the user's moviebin for the term vampire. On the other hand, if the user sends a textmessage to the server “search@all vampire”, then the search modulesearches all bins in the user's bin collection for the term vampire.Results of the search may be output to the user as desired. For example,the output of the search might be texted to the user—as a reportmessage. Alternatively, the results of the search might be output to a“search bin” the user. The results may be output based on BCI, i.e., anyBCI that satisfies the search result is output.

The “append” module 5880 appends, attaches or in some other mannerassociates “related appended content” (hereinafter “RA content”) to abin and/or to a BCI within a bin. For example, the RA content might beattached to a report message sent out to the user. Specifically, the RAcontent might be attached on the tail end of the text message, after theBCIs. Illustratively, at the end of the report text message 125 (ofFIG. 1) the server might insert “///Free soda with large popcorn atBramton Theater”. In generation of such RA content, the server maydetermine that the bin and/or the contents of the bin relate to movies.Also, the server may determine the geographical location of the usereither by the user's smartphone location or by the user's home zip code,for example. The RA content may be demarcated in some suitable manner,such as the three slashes shown above. Further, the RA content might beoutput to the user in a manner that is not unduly intrusive into theuser's review of her bin content (in the report message). In thisexample, the RA content was simply added to the end of the text message.

The RA content may also be output to the user via webpage. Accordingly,upon the user viewing her bin online, the server may retrieve RA contentrelated to the bin and/or the BCIs. The server may then present that RAcontent in some appropriate manner. For example, tabs might be providedsuch that the user can select a particular tab to dictate whether theuser views her BCIs, advertisements associated by the server with thoseBCIs, and/or helpful information that the server associates with theuser's BCIs. For example, if the server determines that the BCIs and/orthe bin relates to movies, then the helpful information presented on thethird tab might relate to directions to the local movie theater, forexample. As a further example, the server might determine that the binrelates to ski items. As a result, the server may present the useradvertisements regarding ski gear. Also, the server might present theuser with tips relating to skiing or a ski trip. In one embodiment, datafrom percolation processing described above might be associated withparticular bin content, and presented to the user in some appropriatemanner. As a further example, the server may observe the term hamburgerin a BCI. As a result, the server retrieves RA content that is relatedto the term hamburger. Thus, the server may retrieve the data “considerrolls, ketchup, mustard” and present such data to the user as RAcontent. In general, it is appreciated that content that the user addsto her bin may be identified and demarcated vis-à-vis the content thatthe server 200 adds to the user's bin, or in some other way associateswith content in the user's bin. In one embodiment, such differentcontent is demarcated by color coding. The user may select theparticular color coding she wants for her BCIs, the color coding shewants for advertisements, any color coding she wants for helpfulinformation, for example. Accordingly, the color coding might be used inlieu of the three tabs described above. Relatedly, it is appreciatedthat the tabbing or color coding methodology may be applied to thepercolation processing described above. For example, BCIs added by theuser may be first color, while content added as a result of percolationprocessing is a second color. The user may be provided the ability tochoose the particular color coding.

In one embodiment, the user's bin collection may include bins that areprimarily populated by companies and/or vendors, for example.Illustratively, the user's bin collection may include a bin “Netflix”.The company NETFLIX may add content to such bin relating to some aspectof the user's interaction or business with NETFLIX. For example, uponwatching a new movie with NETFLIX, the company might interface with theuser's bin Netflix so as to add a BCI reflecting the new movie that waswatched. Alternatively, the company might interface with the bin viatext message or e-mail, for example (i.e. the company would send an addmessage (including the particular content) to the server 200. Forexample, the company might send the server 200 an e-mail“add@Netflix123123 Watched new movie Avatar”. Such language might be inthe header of the e-mail or in the body of the e-mail. In oneembodiment, the server 200 does not distinguish between the header of ane-mail or the body of an e-mail, but rather collectively processes alltext in an e-mail. In other embodiments, the server 200 may look to thesubject field of an e-mail for a trig, and by default consider any textin the body of the e-mail as “content” to be added into the specifiedbin. In this latter embodiment, the server would thus not identify atrig for processing that is in the body of the e-mail.

Accordingly, in this example, the e-mail is in the form of an addmessage, which will result in the content “Watched new movie Avatar”being added as a BCI into the user's bin Netflix. However, one nuance ofsuch processing is reflected in the format of the trig“add@Netflix123123”. Such nuance relates to the fact that the e-mailfrom the company to the server 200 cannot be allocated to a particularbin collection based on the e-mail address of the sender (or the textnumber of the sender if the add message was in the form of a textmessage). Rather, the same e-mail address (or the same text messageaddress) will be used by the company to send add messages for multipleusers, and indeed likely thousands of users. As a result, in oneembodiment, the process requires the trig to distinguish what user's bincollection the particular add message should be directed at, so as tocreate a BCI in the appropriate bin. The manner in which suchdistinction is made, in this example, is by inserting a suffix after thebin label, i.e. the suffix being 123123, for example. Such suffix isuniquely associated with the particular user that the content shouldflow to. It is of course appreciated that the particular format utilizedmay vary as desired. It is also appreciated that suitable authorizationshould be required both to create a bin in the user's bin collectionthat is associated with a particular entity, as well as authorizationfor the particular entity to add content into the particular bin. In oneembodiment, the user may be presented with the option to associatecontact information with a particular bin in the user's bin collection.Accordingly, when an e-mail from a company is identified as beingdirected to a particular bin of a particular user, the server 200 checksto see whether the contact information from which the e-mail originatedfrom is indeed in the list of contact information that the userassociated (with the particular bin). If there is an association, thenthe content is added to the bin. If there is not an association, thenthe content is not added to the bin. If the server determines that thereis not an association, the server may send a communication to the userrequesting permission to generate such association. The datarepresenting the association between an entity/sent e-mail addressvis-à-vis a particular bin may be disposed in the processing particularsof that bin. The company may determine what content the company e-mailsto the bin of a user based on agreement with the user and/or some otherpredetermined understanding. For example, the user might interface withthe system of a company to arrange for scores in a game that the user isplaying is output to a particular bin. For example, the entity POP CAPmay collect scores from a group of At-It system users playing the game“Plants vs. Zombies”, and output the scores to a group bin, which isshared by the At-It system users.

Another module is the “bin-organization” module 5890. Thebin-organization module 5890 performs processing to organize the user'sbin in some predetermined manner. For example, the bin might beorganized based on time the BCI was input into the bin, alphabetically,or in some other manner. In one embodiment, the user may assign apriority to BCIs by modifying the trig. For example, content sent withthe trig “add@movie10” might be given higher priority over content sentwith the trig “add@movie5”. Thus, the user may effectively assign a rankto the add messages the user sends to a particular bin, such that theresulting BCIs will be ranked. The bin-organization module may interfacewith the user via the web interface, so as to change his or herorganizational preferences. In such processing, the particular format ofthe trig may be varied to provide for the server to parse the bincommand from the ranking. For example, the trig to effect ranking mightbe in the form of “add@movie#10”. The ranking may affect the manner inwhich the BCIs are presented to the user via report message or webpageor face. For example, the BCIs with the highest ranking might bepresented first.

Various specialized bins and processing modules are described herein. Itis appreciated that processing described herein as being performed by a“specialized bin” may be performed by a module associated with suchspecialized bin. Relatedly, it is appreciated that processing describedherein as being performed as to a particular “specialized bin” may beutilized with other bins as well. That is, the module that performs suchspecialized bin functionality, may be invoked to extend thatfunctionality to the processing of other bins.

Relatedly, as described herein, the invention provides for differenttypes of bins. In one embodiment, the user might designate theparticular type of bin in conjunction with initially setting up a bin.Different types of bins might be demarcated and characterized in anysuitable manner. For example, types of bins might be broken out toinclude a standard bin, shared bin, encrypted bin (or encryption couldbe an option for any bin), communication bin, or checklist bin, as wellas the other types of bins described herein. Relatedly, there may be arequisite relationship between the particular trigs used and theparticular type of bin. That is, some trigs may simply not a processableby some types of bins. Alternatively, in some embodiments, all of thebins of the user may be of the same structure and capable of calling onspecific processing in response to receiving specific trigs. Thus,functionality described in the context of a specialized bin might beapplied to any bin in the user's bin collection, by using a suitabletrig.

It is appreciated that various At-It related processing may be performedlocally versus on a remote server with which the user communicates,i.e., performed by a processing portion in a user device versus on acomputer processor disposed in a physical server facility with which theuser device communicates, for example. Embodiments of such localprocessing are described throughout this description of the invention.For example, various processing described herein as performed by theserver 200 may instead be performed by a local program, i.e. an app,located on the user's smartphone or computer. Accordingly, the user isable to add and pull content from her locally stored bin collection,e.g., her bin collection is stored on her smartphone. Relatedly, FIG. 60is a block diagram showing further aspects of various At-It apps 6001,in accordance with embodiments of the invention. The various At-It app'sare described below. For example, the apps 6001 may be disposed on theuser's smartphone. However, the apps 6001 and/or the associated bincollection need not be disposed locally. The apps and/or bin collectionmight instead be disposed at a remote server and/or utilize cloudprocessing technology, for example. It is appreciated that processingspeed, communication speed, and other parameters factor into whether anapp 6001 and associated databases are desired to be disposed on a localprocessing system or remotely in some manner.

The collection of At-It apps 6001 includes a “quick-bin” app 6010, whichperforms what is herein characterized as “quick-bin” processing.Quick-bin processing provides for a user to quickly access a content box6130 so as to add (or pull) content from a bin in the user's bincollection. In this embodiment, the app 6010 is disposed on the user'ssmartphone, and interacts with the user's bin collection, which isstored on a remote server, in this embodiment.

FIG. 61 is a user interface (GUI 6101) showing aspects of quick-bin appprocessing, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. Morespecifically, the GUI 6101 of FIG. 61 includes a screen 6102 with a taskbar 6104. The task bar 6104 includes a plurality of icons 6120′ that theuser may tap to activate respective applications. One of the icons 6112′is the quick-bin icon 6112. Upon the user tapping the quick bin icon6112, the quick bin app interface 6120 is generated by the quick bin app6010. The interface 6120 includes a content box 6130. Also, theinterface 6120 includes a collection of bin buttons 6121. Each of thebin buttons corresponds to a respective bin in the user's bincollection. While only four bin buttons 6121 are shown in FIG. 61, itshould be appreciated that any number of bin buttons 6121 may bedisplayed, as such corresponds to the user's bin collection. Theinterface 6120 also includes an add button 6125 and a pull button 6126.

Upon selection of one of the bin buttons 6121 (in this example the“Food” bin button 6121 corresponding to the user's “food” bin isselected), the user presses the add button 6125—to add any content thatis in the content box 6130 (such content might be typed by the user), tothe bin corresponding to the selected bin button 6121, e.g. the user's“Food” bin. The bin button 6121 selected by the user might behighlighted in some manner, as shown in FIG. 61 for the “Food” button.In this embodiment, the quick-bin app adds content to the user's binusing text message with trig. Specifically, the quick bin app 6010generates a text message that includes (1) any content that is in thecontent box 6130, e.g. “need coffee”, as well as (2) a trig based on theparticular bin that was selected. In this example, the quick bin app6010 generates the text message “need coffee add@food”. The quick binapp 6010 then effects the sending of that text message to the server 200to be processed as an add message, using standard trig processing.

In the above example, the user simply typed in the text “need coffee”into the content box 6130. Quick-bin processing is not limited to theuser typing in text to the content box 6130. Functionality may beprovided such that an active item on the user's computer, for example,is associated with the content box 6130, i.e., added into or in somemanner associated with the content box 6130. For example, functionalitymay be provided such that the user selects text in a document that theuser is preparing using a word processing application (e.g. the userhighlights the text), and then taps the quick-bin icon 6112, or someother suitable button or icon that is associated with the functionality.The quick bin app 6010, in response, populates the content box 6130 withthe text that was selected. Further, the invention is not limited totext. For example, the user might in some manner select an image, partof an image, part of the displayed screen, or some other item ofinformation or data. After such selection, the user then clicks, i.e.presses, taps, selects, the quick-bin icon 6112, for example.Representation of that image is then presented in some manner in thecontent box 111. The user then selects the particular bin button 6121corresponding to the bin that the user wishes to add the content into.The user then presses the add button 6125, and that content is addedinto the designated bin.

As shown in FIG. 61, the quick-bin app 6010 also includes presentationof a “pull” button. The user may tap a particular bin button 6121, andthen tap the pull button 6126. As a result, content from the bincorresponding to the tapped “pull button” 6126 is sent to the user. Inparallel fashion to the above “add” processing, in one embodiment, thequick-bin app 6010 generates a text message with trig in order to pullthe content. For example, if the user tapped “movie” and then “pull” thequick-bin app 6010 generates a text message with the text “send@movie”,and sends that text to the server 200. In accord with the processingdescribed herein, the server would then send the content of the user'smovie bin to the user in a text message.

In the embodiment above, the quick-bin app 6010 adds content to theuser's bin using text message with trig. However, in an alternativeembodiment, another data transmission methodology might be utilized. Forexample, the content in the content box 6130 might be output to thedesignated bin using some other data output-input methodology. Insimilar manner, the pull of content from a particular bin, using thepull button 111, is not limited to text messaging with trig. Other datatransmission methodologies might be used here also. For example, uponthe user selecting the pull button 6126, processing may be performed tosynch the content in the designated bin with the content box 6130, i.e.,so as to populate the content box 6130. In the case of the userselecting the add button 6125, processing may be performed to output anycontent in the content box 6130 to the designated bin.

Accordingly, quick-bin processing effectively allows a user to exporttext or other data from her user device (e.g. computer) to a particularbin in her bin collection. In reverse manner, quick-bin processingprovides functionality such that a user may import content in one of herbins into a user device. Import into a user device might be in the formof importing into the content box 6130, as described above, or importinginto another application the user is working with, such as importinginto a Word document.

A further app that may be disposed on the user device is a “GPS” app6020. For example, a GPS app 6020 may be disposed on the user'ssmartphone. The GPS app interfaces with the Texstow server so as tooutput the current GPS location of the user smartphone to the server200. Accordingly, in processing performed by the server, in which theserver needs to knew the location of the user, the server can output acommunication to the GPS app requesting current location. In response,the GPS app outputs the current location to the server.

A “backup” app 6030 may be disposed on the user's smartphone. Based onuser settings, the backup app monitors text messages that the user sendsto another person. For example, the user may indicate that she wishesthe backup app to engage with all communications she sends to her friend“Sam.” Accordingly, upon the user preparing and sending a text messageto Sam, the backup app takes the content (in that text message), andsends that content in a communication to the server (to be added to apredetermined bin in the user's bin collection). The communication mightbe in the form of a text message that includes the content as well as atrig. The trig might be “add@Sam”. Accordingly, the backup app providesfunctionality such that the content that is sent by the user to Sam isalso deposited into a particular bin in the user's bin collection.Indeed, in one embodiment, the user actually inserts the trig into thetext message to Sam. The trig might be “sendandadd@Sam”. The backup appmonitors text messages sent out from the user's smartphone. Accordingly,upon the user pressing the send button on the smartphone, the backup appobserves that the text message contains the trig “sendandadd@Sam”. Thetrig initiates processing by the backup app that includes stripping outthe trig from the text message, adding any content into the user's “Sam”bin, and sending the text message on to Sam. Accordingly, in thisexample, the backup app pulls the content that is being sent to Samprior to that text message outputting from the user's smartphone. Oncethe processing by the backup app is performed, the text message is thensent from the user's smartphone to Sam. In an alternative embodiment,upon observing the trig “sendandadd@Sam”, the backup app may indeedroute the text message to the server 200. The server 200 would thenstrip out the trig and route the remaining content on to Sam. Inaddition, the server 200 would add the content into the user's bin“Sam”. In this alternative embodiment, however, the text messagereceived by Sam would be from the server 200, as opposed to from theuser.

As otherwise described herein, the server may implement various defaultprocessing. In one embodiment, the content of a text message that is notprocessable by the server 200 is added into the user's catchall bin.Alternatively, the user may be provided functionality to control whatbin, in her bin collection, is the default bin. Accordingly, for textmessage containing content that the user wishes to place in her defaultbin, the user need merely type the content, and then send the textmessage, e.g., type “coffee” and send the text message to the server200. IN this example, “coffee” is placed into the user's “grocery” bin,since such is her default bin (as set by the user).

Also, default processing may be implemented to control the placement ofcontent in a situation where a text message includes two trigs. Forexample, a text message might read “add@store coffee II add@HomeDepothose”. In this example, the “II” dictates to the server 200 that the twotrigs indicate that “coffee” should be added into the store bin; and“hose” should be added into the HomeDepot bin. This processing allows auser to send a single text message to the server 200 with multiplecontent that is added to respective bins. On the other hand, if the textmessage read “add@store coffee add@HomeDepot hose” (i.e. “II” was notincluded), then the server may be programmed to add all the content intoall the bins indicated. Accordingly, the content “coffee hose” would beadded into both the store bin and the HomeDepot bin.

As noted above, the content “add@store coffee II add@HomeDepot hose”dictates that “coffee” and “hose” are added into respective bins by theserver 200. In another related example, this functionality provides theability for a user to divvy out content from a single communication,such as an e-mail. Illustratively, a user is attending a technologyconference and taking notes by tapping those notes into an e-maildisplayed on her DROID smartphone, the e-mail addressed to the At-Itserver 200. The notes might be 100 words, for example. Before sendingthe e-mail, the user splits the notes up into two, e.g., sections byadding in a “II” to mark the section break. Within each section the userinserts a single trig. In one section the user inserts the trig“add@mobile”; and in another section, the user inserts the trig“add@social”. The user then sends the e-mail to the At-It server 200.The server performs processing including (1) identifying that the e-mailcontains sections demarcated by “//”; (2) determining the trig that isin each section (including that the command is “add”); and (3) addingthe content of each section into a BCI (bin content item) in theparticular user bin (as designated by the bin label (mobile, social) ineach respective trig). Content from the e-mail is thus divvied out torespective bins (mobile, social) in a highly efficient and organizedmanner. The user's “mobile” bin may be for her thoughts at the meetingregarding mobile technology, and the “social” bin might be for herthoughts at the meeting regarding what's happening in social mediatechnology.

It is appreciated that particular words may be reserved for particularprocessing. Such words might include the words add, send, get, search,first, last, null (to specify no bin), or other words.

As noted above, in one embodiment, the server 200 does not distinguishbetween the header of an e-mail or the body of an e-mail, but rathercollectively processes all text in an e-mail. In other embodiments, theserver 200 may look to the subject field of an e-mail for a trig, and bydefault consider any text in the body of the e-mail as “content” to beadded into the specified bin. In this latter embodiment, the serverwould thus not identify a trig for processing that is in the body of thee-mail. It is appreciated that various known technology may be utilizedin conjunction with the systems and methods of the invention. Such knowntechnology includes U.S. Pat. No. 7,437,413 issued Oct. 14, 2008 (Textmessaging system and method); U.S. Pat. No. 7,433,923 issued Oct. 7,2008 (Authorized e-mail control system); U.S. Pat. No. 8,006,180 issuedAug. 23, 2011 (Spellchecking network browser based applications); U.S.Pat. No. 3,967,073 issued Jun. 29, 1976 (PBX automatic numberidentification system); U.S. Pat. No. 6,760,727 issued Jul. 6, 2004(System for customer contact information management and methods forusing same); and U.S. Publication 2011/0010548 published Jan. 13, 2011(Secure e-mail system), which are all incorporated herein by referencein their entirety.

Hereinafter further aspects of implementation will be described.

As described above, embodiments of the system of the invention andvarious processes of embodiments are described. The system of theinvention or portions of the system of the invention may be in the formof a “processing machine,” i.e. a tangibly embodied machine, such as ageneral purpose computer or a special purpose computer, for example. Asused herein, the term “processing machine” is to be understood toinclude at least one processor that uses at least one memory. The atleast one memory stores a set of instructions. The instructions may beeither permanently or temporarily stored in the memory or memories ofthe processing machine. The processor executes the instructions that arestored in the memory or memories in order to process data. The set ofinstructions may include various instructions that perform a particulartask or tasks, such as any of the processing as described herein. Such aset of instructions for performing a particular task may becharacterized as a program, software program, or simply software.

As noted above, the processing machine, which may be constituted, forexample, by the particular system and/or systems described above,executes the instructions that are stored in the memory or memories toprocess data. This processing of data may be in response to commands bya user or users of the processing machine, in response to previousprocessing, in response to a request by another processing machineand/or any other input, for example.

As noted above, the processing machine used to implement the inventionmay be a general purpose computer. However, the processing machinedescribed above may also utilize (or be in the form of) any of a widevariety of other technologies including a special purpose computer, acomputer system including a microcomputer, mini-computer or mainframefor example, a programmed microprocessor, a micro-controller, aperipheral integrated circuit element, a CSIC (Consumer SpecificIntegrated Circuit) or ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) orother integrated circuit, a logic circuit, a digital signal processor, aprogrammable logic device such as a FPGA, PLD, PLA or PAL, or any otherdevice or arrangement of devices that is capable of implementing thesteps of the processes of the invention. The processing machine used toimplement the invention may be in the form of a plurality of computerscoordinated with each other using “cloud” technology.

The processing machine used to implement the invention may utilize asuitable operating system. Thus, embodiments of the invention mayinclude a processing machine running a Microsoft Windows™ operatingsystem such as the Microsoft Windows™ 7 operating system, the MicrosoftWindows™ Vista™ operating system, the Microsoft Windows™ XP™ operatingsystem, the Microsoft Windows™ NT™ operating system, the Windows™ 2000operating system, the Unix operating system, the Linux operating system,the Xenix operating system, the IBM AIX™ operating system, theHewlett-Packard UX™ operating system, the Novell Netware™ operatingsystem, the Sun Microsystems Solaris™ operating system, the OS/2™operating system, the BeOS™ operating system, the Macintosh operatingsystem, the Apache operating system, an OpenStep™ operating system oranother operating system or platform.

It is appreciated that in order to practice the method of the inventionas described above, it is not necessary that the processors and/or thememories of the processing machine be physically located in the samegeographical place. That is, each of the processors and the memoriesused by the processing machine may be located in geographically distinctlocations and connected so as to communicate in any suitable manner.Additionally, it is appreciated that each of the processor and/or thememory may be composed of different physical pieces of equipment.Accordingly, it is not necessary that the processor be one single pieceof equipment in one location and that the memory be another single pieceof equipment in another location. That is, it is contemplated that theprocessor may be two pieces of equipment in two different physicallocations. The two distinct pieces of equipment may be connected in anysuitable manner. Additionally, the memory may include two or moreportions of memory in two or more physical locations.

To explain further, processing as described above is performed byvarious components and various memories. However, it is appreciated thatthe processing performed by two distinct components as described abovemay, in accordance with a further embodiment of the invention, beperformed by a single component. Further, the processing performed byone distinct component as described above may be performed by twodistinct components. In a similar manner, the memory storage performedby two distinct memory portions as described above may, in accordancewith a further embodiment of the invention, be performed by a singlememory portion. Further, the memory storage performed by one distinctmemory portion as described above may be performed by two memoryportions.

Further, various technologies may be used to provide communicationbetween the various processors and/or memories, as well as to allow theprocessors and/or the memories of the invention to communicate with anyother entity; i.e., so as to obtain further instructions or to accessand use remote memory stores, for example. Such technologies used toprovide such communication might include a network, the Internet,Intranet, Extranet, LAN, an Ethernet, or any client server system thatprovides communication, for example. Such communications technologiesmay use any suitable protocol such as TCP/IP, UDP, or OSI, for example.Also, Near Field Communication (NFC) may be used in practice of theinvention.

As described above, a set of instructions is used in the processing ofthe invention. The set of instructions may be in the form of a programor software. The software may be in the form of system software orapplication software, for example. The software might also be in theform of a collection of separate programs, a program module within alarger program, or a portion of a program module, for example. Thesoftware used might also include modular programming in the form ofobject oriented programming. The software tells the processing machinewhat to do with the data being processed.

Further, it is appreciated that the instructions or set of instructionsused in the implementation and operation of the invention may be in asuitable form such that the processing machine may read theinstructions. For example, the instructions that form a program may bein the form of a suitable programming language, which is converted tomachine language or object code to allow the processor or processors toread the instructions. That is, written lines of programming code orsource code, in a particular programming language, are converted tomachine language using a compiler, assembler or interpreter. The machinelanguage is binary coded machine instructions that are specific to aparticular type of processing machine, i.e., to a particular type ofcomputer, for example. The computer understands the machine language.

Any suitable programming language may be used in accordance with thevarious embodiments of the invention. Illustratively, the programminglanguage used may include assembly language, Ada, APL, Basic, C, C++,COBOL, dBase, Forth, Fortran, Java, Modula-2, Pascal, Prolog, REXX,Visual Basic, and/or JavaScript, for example. Further, it is notnecessary that a single type of instructions or single programminglanguage be utilized in conjunction with the operation of the system andmethod of the invention. Rather, any number of different programminglanguages may be utilized as is necessary or desirable.

Also, the instructions and/or data used in the practice of the inventionmay utilize any compression or encryption technique or algorithm, as maybe desired. An encryption module might be used to encrypt data. Further,files or other data may be decrypted using a suitable decryption module,for example.

As described above, the invention may illustratively be embodied in theform of a processing machine, including a computer or computer system,for example, that includes at least one memory. It is to be appreciatedthat the set of instructions, i.e., the software for example, thatenables the computer operating system to perform the operationsdescribed above may be contained on any of a wide variety of media ormedium, as desired. Further, the data that is processed by the set ofinstructions might also be contained on any of a wide variety of mediaor medium. That is, the particular medium, i.e., the memory in theprocessing machine, utilized to hold the set of instructions and/or thedata used in the invention may take on any of a variety of physicalforms or transmissions, for example. Illustratively, the medium may bein the form of paper, paper transparencies, a compact disk, a DVD, anintegrated circuit, a hard disk, a floppy disk, an optical disk, amagnetic tape, a RAM, a ROM, a PROM, a EPROM, a wire, a cable, a fiber,communications channel, a satellite transmissions or other remotetransmission, as well as any other medium or source of data that may beread by the processors of the invention.

Further, the memory or memories used in the processing machine thatimplements the invention may be in any of a wide variety of forms toallow the memory to hold instructions, data, or other information, as isdesired. Thus, the memory might be in the form of a database to holddata. The database might use any desired arrangement of files such as aflat file arrangement or a relational database arrangement, for example.

In the system and method of the invention, a variety of “userinterfaces” may be utilized to allow a user to interface with theprocessing machine or machines that are used to implement the invention.As used herein, a user interface includes any hardware, software, orcombination of hardware and software used by the processing machine thatallows a user to interact with the processing machine. A user interfacemay be in the form of a dialogue screen for example. A user interfacemay also include any of a mouse, touch screen, keyboard, voice reader,voice recognizer, dialogue screen, menu box, list, checkbox, toggleswitch, a pushbutton or any other device that allows a user to receiveinformation regarding the operation of the processing machine as itprocesses a set of instructions and/or provide the processing machinewith information. Accordingly, the user interface is any device thatprovides communication between a user and a processing machine. Theinformation provided by the user to the processing machine through theuser interface may be in the form of a command, a selection of data, orsome other input, for example.

As discussed above, a user interface is utilized by the processingmachine that performs a set of instructions such that the processingmachine processes data for a user. The user interface is typically usedby the processing machine for interacting with a user either to conveyinformation or receive information from the user. However, it should beappreciated that in accordance with some embodiments of the system andmethod of the invention, it is not necessary that a human user actuallyinteract with a user interface used by the processing machine of theinvention. Rather, it is also contemplated that the user interface ofthe invention might interact, i.e., convey and receive information, withanother processing machine, rather than a human user. Relatedly, inembodiments, the At-It processing may be utilized to provide APIfunctionality. Accordingly, the other processing machine might becharacterized as a user. Further, it is contemplated that a userinterface utilized in the system and method of the invention mayinteract partially with another processing machine or processingmachines, while also interacting partially with a human user.

It will be readily understood by those persons skilled in the art thatthe present invention is susceptible to broad utility and application.Many embodiments and adaptations of the present invention other thanthose herein described, as well as many variations, modifications andequivalent arrangements, will be apparent from or reasonably suggestedby the present invention and foregoing description thereof, withoutdeparting from the substance or scope of the invention.

Accordingly, while the present invention has been described here indetail in relation to its exemplary embodiments, it is to be understoodthat this disclosure is only illustrative and exemplary of the presentinvention and is made to provide an enabling disclosure of theinvention. Accordingly, the foregoing disclosure is not intended to beconstrued or to limit the present invention or otherwise to exclude anyother such embodiments, adaptations, variations, modifications andequivalent arrangements.

1-20. (canceled)
 21. A system that processes content disposed in anelectronic communication from a user device of a user, the user deviceassigned a routing character string, the system in the form of atangibly embodied computer, the computer including instructions on anon-transitory computer readable medium, the system comprising: acommunication portion that inputs an electronic communication from theuser device, the electronic communication including communicationcontent and the routing character string, and the communication contentconstituted by data generated as a result of, and representative of,characters keyed into the user device by the user, the communicationcontent including at least a character string, and the character stringhaving been keyed in by the user to the user device and represented inthe electronic communication, input by the communication portion, assuch; and a processor portion that maintains a bin collection for theuser, the bin collection including a plurality of bins, and theprocessor portion performing processing including: identifying the userbased on the routing character string; identifying, based on at leastone selected from the group consisting of (a) the user that wasidentified and (b) the routing character string, the bin collectionassociated with the user; identifying the character string contained inthe communication; processing the character string to identify anidentified bin, the identified bin being a bin in the bin collection ofthe user, and at least a portion of the communication contentconstituting a content item; adding the content item to the identifiedbin; determining that percolation processing is to be performed; andperforming the percolation processing including: determining anassociated perc-bin that is associated with the identified bin, theassociated perc-bin including perc-bin content items, which have beenpopulated by a plurality of users; comparing the content item vis-à-visperc-bin content items in the associated perc-bin to determine if thecontent item matches with a perc-bin content item; and performingprocessing based on the comparing including varying attributes of theassociated server perc-bin.
 22. The system of claim 21, the comparingincludes determining that the content item does not match with aperc-bin content item; and the performing processing based on thecomparing includes adding the content item into the associated perc-binas a new perc-bin content item.
 23. The system of claim 21, thecomparing the content item includes determining that the content itemdoes match with a perc-bin content item-in the associated perc-bin, suchperc-bin content item thus constituting a matching perc-bin contentitem; and the performing processing based on the comparing includesincrementing a count of the matching perc-bin content item so as toreflect the popularity of the matching perc-bin content item.
 24. Thesystem of claim 23, the performing processing further including:refreshing an order number of perc-bin content items, in the associatedperc-bin, based on the incremented count of the matching perc-bincontent item.
 25. The system of claim 24, the refreshing an order numberof perc-bin content items results in the matching perc-bin content itemattaining a higher order number, the order number reflecting the orderthat perc-bin content items are ordered in the matching perc-bin contentitem.
 26. The system of claim 25, the processor portion furtherperforming perc-bin distribution processing, the perc-bin distributionprocessing including: outputting, by the processor portion, the matchingperc-bin content item, to at least one second user, based on the ordernumber associated with said matching perc-bin content item.
 27. Thesystem of claim 25, the processor portion further performing perc-bindistribution processing, the perc-bin distribution processing including:outputting, by the processor portion, the matching perc-bin contentitem, to an associated second user bin of a second user, based on theorder number associated with said matching perc-bin content item; andwherein the associated second user bin is associated with the associatedperc-bin.
 28. The system of claim 27, the perc-bin distributionprocessing further including: determining that the second user's bin isassociated with the associated perc-bin; retrieving a percolation addthreshold number (PATN) associated with a second user's bin; determiningthat percolation has pushed the matching perc-bin content item above thePATN; and adding the matching perc-bin content item into the associatedsecond user bin.
 29. The system of claim 28, the processor portionperforming processing to remove a second perc-bin content item in thesecond user's bin, such processing including: retrieving a percolationremoval threshold number (PRTN) associated with the second user's bin;determining that percolation has pushed the second perc-bin content itembelow the PRTN; and removing the second perc-bin content item from theassociated second user bin.
 30. The system of claim 28, the processorportion performing perc-bin distribution processing for a plurality ofusers, in addition to the second user.
 31. The system of claim 21, thedetermining that percolation processing is to be performed includesdetermining if a threshold is satisfied.
 32. The system of claim 21, thedetermining that percolation processing is to be performed includes theprocessor portion determining that the identified bin is opted intopercolation processing, such percolation constituted by the identifiedbin of the user contributing content to the associated perc-bin.
 33. Thesystem of claim 32, the processor portion determining that theidentified bin is opted into perc-bin distribution processing whichincludes outputting content from the associated perc-bin to theidentified bin based on popularity of such content that is output. 34.The system of claim 33, the processor portion and the user bincollection are disposed on a server with each other.
 35. The system ofclaim 21, the processor portion performing processing to determine thatthe communication constitutes an add request, and the add requestdictating to add at least a portion of the communication content intothe identified bin
 36. The system of claim 21, wherein: the comparingthe content item includes determining that the content item does matchwith a perc-bin content item in the associated perc-bin, such perc-bincontent item thus constituting a matching perc-bin content item; and theperforming processing based on the comparing includes incrementing acount of the matching perc-bin content item so as to reflect thepopularity of the matching perc-bin content item; and wherein thecomparing the content item to the perc-bin content item includesutilizing normalizing processing, such normalizing processing takinginto account slight variations, such as misspellings, between thecontent item and perc-bin content item.
 37. The system of claim 21, therouting character string constituted by the cell phone number of theuser.
 38. The system of claim 21, the processor portion interfacing withthe user to provide the user to turn percolation on, or alternatively,turn percolation off.
 39. The system of claim 21, the processing thecharacter string to determine an identified bin is performed by theprocessor portion using natural language processing that includes:comparing the character string to words in a plurality of word sets;determining that the character string matches with a word in a word set,such matching word in such word set thus constituting a first matchingword in a first active word set; and mapping the first active word setto a first word set collection (WSC) directive, such first WSC directiveconstituting at least one of a command and identified bin.
 40. A methodto process content disposed in an electronic communication from a userdevice of a user, the user device assigned a routing character string,the system in the form of a tangibly embodied computer, the computerincluding instructions on a non-transitory computer readable medium, thesystem comprising: providing a communication portion that inputs anelectronic communication from the user device, the electroniccommunication including communication content and the routing characterstring, and the communication content constituted by data generated as aresult of, and representative of, characters keyed into the user deviceby the user, the communication content including at least a characterstring, and the character string having been keyed in by the user to theuser device and represented in the electronic communication, input bythe communication portion, as such; and providing a processor portionthat maintains a bin collection for the user, the bin collectionincluding a plurality of bins, and the processor portion performingprocessing including: identifying the user based on the routingcharacter string; identifying, based on at least one selected from thegroup consisting of (a) the user that was identified and (b) the routingcharacter string, the bin collection associated with the user;identifying the character string contained in the communication;processing the character string to identify an identified bin, theidentified bin being a bin in the bin collection of the user, and atleast a portion of the communication content constituting a contentitem; adding the content item to the identified bin; determining thatpercolation processing is to be performed; and performing thepercolation processing including: determining an associated perc-binthat is associated with the identified bin, the associated perc-binincluding perc-bin content items, which have been populated by aplurality of users; comparing the content item vis-à-vis perc-bincontent items in the associated perc-bin to determine if the contentitem matches with a perc-bin content item; and performing processingbased on the comparing including varying attributes of the associatedserver perc-bin.